Orde vows to get tough on sectarian murders

Northern Ireland’s new chief constable Hugh Orde today vowed to crack down on the paramilitary chiefs who have orchestrated a series of unsolved sectarian murders.

As he began work in Belfast, Hugh Orde outlined plans to oversee a major review of murder investigations in a bid to capture those who ordered and carried out the killings.

The former Metropolitan Deputy Assistant Commissioner accepted police inquiries into the assassinations have failed to yield satisfactory results but pledged to jail the leaders one way or another.

He said: “I intend to target those who are doing the most damage to the communities in Northern Ireland. Those are the major players.

“I believe in disruption. If I can’t arrest someone for murder but I can arrest them for some other substantial offence I’ll do it.

“It’s how you take these people out.”

Even though mainstream loyalist and republican organisations have supposedly been on ceasefire since 1994, the shootings have continued.

With detectives unable to secure the evidence that will lead to prosecutions, the overwhelming majority of the murder cases have remained unsolved.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland has come under intense pressure to seize those who are continuing to target and kill innocent victims.

Among the most high-profile murders was the drive-by shooting of Gerard Lawlor, aged 19, by the Ulster Defence Association in north Belfast in July.

Earlier this year Catholic postman Daniel McColgan, 20, was gunned down by a UDA gang as he started work in a staunchly loyalist estate in Co Antrim.

In July last year 18-year-old Gavin Brett was murdered by the same organisation as he chatted with friends close to his home at Glengormley, Co Antrim.

Dissident republicans have also been active, with the Real IRA behind the bomb attack on a Derry Territorial Army base which killed 51-year-old construction worker David Caldwell.

No one has ever been charged with any of these murders or a raft of others which sent waves of revulsion through the province.

Pointing to the killings, Mr Orde accepted he was taking over the job at a time when terrorists pose a huge risk to security.

“The reality is it is high, if you look at the number of murders that have been committed over the last eight months as a starting point and the number of murder investigations we have got running at the minute which are not hugely successful,” he admitted.

Along with strong intelligence from people willing to tell police what they know, he stressed the need to get detectives on the scene faster.

“The first 48 to 72 hours is absolutely vital simply because that’s when you get your evidence,” he said.

“We need to review the way we investigate murder and we are going to do that.

“We need to make sure the investigating officer has immediate access to all available intelligence and resources to make any necessary arrests quickly.”

As he started one of the toughest policing jobs in Europe, Mr Orde also confirmed:

The Special Branch is likely to undergo “substantial” change;

Full-time reserves should not be scrapped for several years;

He plans to meet community leaders in a bid to end the sectarian violence engulfing parts of Belfast;

The Castlereagh break-in was a disaster that could cause major damage to intelligence gathering.

Mr Orde was appointed to succeed Ronnie Flanagan in May after beating off the challenge from two top PSNI officers.

He then relinquished his role in charge of the day-to-day running of John Stevens’ third inquiry into claims police and military intelligence conspired in the 1989 loyalist murder of Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane.

Stevens' latest report – due for publication in late October – is expected to make scathing criticisms of how Special Branch operated.

Mr Orde accepted the irony of taking delivery of the paper based on an investigation which he ran for two and a half years.

Intimately aware of what the Stevens III paper will contain, he confirmed big reforms would be called for.

“I think the changes will be substantial but what I would stress is they are aimed at making it better,” he said.

However, he tempered his remarks by insisting the anti-terrorist intelligence unit needed to retain a covert element.

“One has to be realistic that you cannot have a transparent Special Branch in terms of having transparent policing in other areas,” he insisted.

“What we can’t have is a system of senior investigating officers investigating serious crimes starved of intelligence which was in the system. That cannot happen.”

Morale within the PSNI has plunged since the Patten reforms saw the force depleted to beneath the 7,500 serving officers recommended in that blueprint.

With sickness levels far higher than any other UK police service, the new chief constable was aware of the need to boost internal confidence.

Initiatives such as a rewards system, extra annual leave and bonus payments could be brought in to ease the problem of excess numbers too ill to work, he suggested.

“Those who are abusing the sickness system need also to be dealt with,” he warned.

Last month the acting chief constable Colin Cramphorn revealed that the ongoing sectarian violence had stretched PSNI resources to its limit.

The warning came at a time when the full-time reserve’s future was shrouded in doubt given the Patten recommendations for it to be phased out.

But the continued disorder across parts of Belfast, and the terrorist threat to the peace process has left Mr Orde adamant such a move is years away.

“At the moment without the reserve I would be in deep difficulties,” he said.