Orange Order 'has duty to name rioters'

The police officer in charge of yesterday's security at the Drumcree Orange parade says the Order has a moral and legal duty to give him the names of its members involved in violence.

Stephen White said that after viewing video footage of events at Drumcree, he now accepted that men in Orange collarettes had been involved in attacking his officers and that the Order had a legal duty to report the names of those involved to the police.

The executive officer of the Orange Order, George Patton, has said it will deal with those responsible for yesterday's violence at Drumcree internally.

Mr White was also angry at Orange Order claims, after the violence in which the first barricade on the bridge was demolished, that they had never thought it would prevent a breach.

He said he had shared details of what he would be putting on the bridge with the Order before the parade.

If they had not thought a six foot three inch high metal barricade weighing three tons held in place by concrete blocks would do the job, he said, they should have said so instead of being wise after the event.

A police spokesman in Portadown has said this morning that security measures at Drumcree, including the British Army's strengthened barricade on the bridge will stay there for as long as they are needed.