Security force elements 'trying to undermine peace process'

Elements within the security forces are trying to undermine the peace process by alleging that republicans were behind last month’s break-in at a top security Belfast police station, it was claimed today.

Former IRA prisoner Bobby Storey, who was among six people arrested on Saturday in connection with the theft of documents from Castlereagh Police Station, angrily denied allegations that he was a member of the IRA or its director of intelligence.

As police released three more people - including former IRA hunger striker Raymond McCartney without charge, Mr Storey, who was also freed on Sunday without charge, rejected any suggestion that he could have been one part of the gang which raided the station as ‘‘preposterous’’.

He said in an interview with PA News that during four interviews with detectives, police had produced no evidence that he was involved in the break-in.

He suspected the arrests were being used to deflect attention from the real culprits, he said, adding: ‘‘It’s stuff out of books. It’s just ridiculous.

‘‘From my experience in the barracks, there was no road during questioning that they wanted specifically to take me down. They just wanted to get me in, so they could have this high profile sort of situation.

‘‘I am personally convinced it’s a smokescreen. It’s smoke and mirrors to deflect attention away from whoever is behind this.

‘‘Whoever is behind it has no interest in the peace process. They have landed it on republicans to further any objective they may have to undermine the peace process. We can’t allow that to happen.’’

Two republicans and two civilians who were also arrested on Saturday were released.

A fourth republican appeared at Belfast Magistrates Court on Wednesday charged with possessing information of use to paramilitaries. But the charge was not connected with the Castlereagh break-in.

Mr Storey said he was in bed with his girlfriend in his west Belfast home last Saturday when police wearing balaclavas stormed the house, smashing a bedroom window.

Armed police used ladders to get into the front of the house through the bedroom, he claimed, while another group smashed down the front door.

Initially, he thought the house was being raked with gunfire.

When he got out of bed, he was ordered not to move and was pinned to the floor, and a detective told him he was being arrested.

Mr Storey said: ‘‘As to the amount of RUC men that were there, they were in our hall, the landing, they were right down the stairs and out the door - all of them standing and aiming weapons up,’’ he said.

‘‘There were three in the bedroom with me, three with me, two in the upstairs hall, two at the back bedroom and I passed at least 10 of them between the top landing and the bottom door.

‘‘They were all masked and had guns, in a high state of agitation.

‘‘I started to hear them say: ‘Calm down, that’s it’. They were really out of their tree.’’

Mr Storey said he was told at Lisburn police station he was being arrested on suspicion of IRA membership and for possessing documents on March 17.

The interviews were ‘‘a joke’’, he said, adding: ‘‘My solicitor was accompanying me. They made a number of allegations which he asked them to substantiate. Had they any evidence for them? They said they had no evidence to offer.

‘‘There was no specific question which was substantially or evidentially based. It was just a series of allegations.’’

Mr Storey said republicans were ‘‘stunned’’ by the arrests and searches and that they were being portrayed as the chief suspects.

He vehemently denied reports that he was the IRA’s head of intelligence.

‘‘I was arrested with a young woman, a man, and three other republicans.

‘‘You are brought in. You are put through a charade. You are released and then, when you are released, you are shocked to find out that the newspapers are briefed that you are a particular type of member of the IRA.

‘‘A lot of the papers were carrying that as if it was fact. Some journalists and papers are writing this as fact when it is in fact a leak from Special Branch, from within the system.

‘‘These are the same people who are involved in the Omagh inquiry, the debacle with the (Police) Ombudsman, the (loyalist William) Stobie murder.

‘‘I absolutely refute all the allegations.

‘‘I am not a member of the IRA, but the main point is that whoever is involved in all of this, the people who carried this out probably carried out the whole smear campaign and the extension into the republican camp.

‘‘The basis for all of this, in my personal opinion, has as its objective the undermining of the peace process and, as I said earlier, we have to be determined that that is not allowed to happen.’’

Mr Storey said his treatment at the hands of the police was the ‘‘worst experience of my life’’.

He was ‘‘taking legal advice’’ from his solicitor on what course of action he could pursue about a possible police complaint, he added.