Orde '99.9% positive' on IRA raid link

Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde today said he was “99.9% positive” that the IRA was behind the Belfast bank raid.

Sinn Féin has said the police chief had no evidence to back his claim the IRA was responsible for the £26.5m (€38m) Northern Bank robbery.

But Mr Orde said he was certain it was involved.

“If we had evidence we would have people in front of the courts,” he said.

“No chief constable gives out publicly the intelligence they have … I would not have said what I said without being 99.9 recurring per cent positive that crime was committed by the IRA.”

Mr Orde also condemned the IRA’s “grip of fear” over the community which was stopping people coming forward over the murder of Belfast man Robert McCartney.

He said 70 people were in the bar where he was killed. But the police were unable to get the evidence they needed because people feared the IRA.

The police chief said the provisional IRA was carrying out crimes to fund illegal activity and was prepared to allow its members to commit murder without sanction.

Mr Orde also renewed his call for Sinn Féin to join the Northern Ireland police board.

“The notion we don’t speak to Sinn Féin frankly is rubbish,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“Sinn Féin speak to us behind the scenes. They are just incapable of speaking to us up front and engaging in policing through the democratic procedures that are in place in Northern Ireland.”

Mr McCartney’s sister Paula also repeated her demand for the IRA to order people to come forward over the murder.

“The IRA has to accept that their members did indeed carry it out and some of those members are still in their organisation,” she said.

“Therefore the responsibility of what happens now to these members lies with the IRA. They have expelled three members. But there were more than three people involved. Therefore people who participated in the clean-up are still their members. So in that case then surely they have the power to order them to do the right thing.”

:: A 29-year-old man was last night released by detectives investigating the murder of Mr McCartney.

The man had walked into a city centre police station alone to meet detectives as the British government demanded more action by the IRA to turn in the men who slashed the victim’s throat.

After being questioned for several hours, the man was released without charge.