Get tougher on terrorists, Orde tells judges

Northern Ireland's top policeman has criticised the judges there for being “lenient” on terrorists and criminals.

Chief Constable Hugh Orde said courts in Northern Ireland were softer than those in Britain and in the Republic where they “throw away the key”.

Speaking in New York, Mr Orde said he was determined to see terrorists jailed.

“I don’t mind how I lock these people up, but what I do care about is that I lock them up,” he said.

But he went on: “It would be awfully helpful if the judges… could lock them up for slightly longer.

“We seem to have a problem, where sentences compared to London are lenient.”

He added that south of the border in Ireland the courts were even more hard line. There they “throw away the key”, he told guests and members of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy.

As an example of the soft sentences in Northern Ireland, he explained that a terrorist or criminal jailed for carrying a loaded gun could be released within one year.

In his speech Mr Orde also said it was essential that the ongoing political impasse in Northern Ireland was solved before the forthcoming marching season.

Lack of political progress could lead to violence on the streets, he said.

He encouraged Sinn Féin to take the “brave” step of joining the Northern Ireland Policing Board – although he could not envisage that happening within the next few months.

And he promised to co-operate with any inquiries the British government might set up in light of the forthcoming report by retired Canadian judge Peter Cory.

Judge Cory has probed four controversial killings in Northern Ireland and subsequent allegations that British security services may be implicated by colluding with Loyalist killers.

However, Mr Orde said he could not imagine the British government establishing major public inquiries into the deaths – like the inquiry under Lord Saville currently examining Bloody Sunday – simply because of the cost.

Mr Orde said the Policing Board was not representative of Northern Ireland’s people without the involvement of Sinn Féin.

“They are the second biggest party in Northern Ireland and they’re not on the Policing Board. That, in my view, is not right,” he said.

“Sinn Féin needs to be… brave and take that step,” he said, but added: “It wouldn’t make my life easy.”

Mr Orde said any serving officers criticised in the Cory Report could be referred to policing ombudsman Nuala O’Loan.

Even if he decided not to refer such officers she had the right to “self-refer”, he said.

He said he was sure that there would be an inquiry “of some type” as a result of the Cory Report.

“Whatever they need, they will get – everything I own,” he said.

Judge Cory has investigated:

:: Allegations of security force collusion in the killing of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989 by the loyalist Ulster Freedom Fighters.

:: The police response to a fatal attack by a mob on Portadown Catholic Robert Hamill in April 1997.

:: The shooting dead by the Irish National Liberation Army of Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright in the high-security Maze Prison in December 1997.

:: Allegations of police death threats against Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson before she was murdered in a loyalist booby-trap car bomb in March 1999.

Seven US Senators, including Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry, have written to British Prime Minister Tony Blair calling for the release of the report.

But, referring to the costly Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday, Mr Orde said: “I would be surprised if they did four more of those, because that takes you up to a billion pounds.”

While he was committed to accountability, Mr Orde said he was being asked to “police the present and police the past”.

“The notion that I could bring in hundreds of detectives from all over the UK [to investigate] is not a real one because they do not exist,” he said.

Mr Orde, who has been in the United States for two weeks, told how President Bush made one of his famous gaffes at the White House during this year’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations.

He said that last year the President introduced him as “Chief Orde” – but this year referred to him as “Constable Orde”.

Mr Orde added: “And I managed to go from the top of the police force to the bottom of the police force.”