PSNI criticised over handling of loyalist feud

Northern Ireland’s most senior policeman Hugh Orde was today challenged to acknowledge his officers made mistakes in allowing loyalist paramilitaries to take over a Belfast housing estate where families were forced to flee their homes.

Four lives have been claimed this summer as the Ulster Volunteer Force waged a bloody vendetta against the rival Loyalist Volunteer Force in Belfast.

But senior police officers came under particular criticism in July for standing back while dozens of hooded UVF men patrolled the streets of the Garnerville estate in the east of the city after expelling six families from the area.

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain has also faced demands in recent days from SDLP leader Mark Durkan to declare the UVF ceasefire obsolete.

As he prepared for a meeting with members of the Northern Ireland Policing Board meeting on Thursday, Chief Constable Hugh Orde was warned by nationalist SDLP member Alex Attwood he would be expected to put on record the scale and impact of loyalist paramilitary violence including recent attacks on Catholic homes and property in north Antrim.

“The facts of that terror expose the inaction of the British government on the UVF ceasefire,” the Assembly member for West Belfast said.

“That is why the SDLP is asking the Chief Constable to clarify the number of murders, attempted murders, pipebombs and other incidents that the PSNI attributes to the UVF since 1st May 2005.

“The police should confirm that lessons have been learned from Garnerville and the damage caused to the PSNI, so that this incident and image is not repeated.

“The police also need to state as fully as they can their strategy to pursue and prosecute those in Ballymena, Ahoghill and other places involved in sectarian crime. More information about what the police are doing, overtly and covertly, can help rebuild confidence.”

The last victim of the UVF was 42-year-old father-of-three Michael Green, who was shot dead on his way to work in the loyalist Sandy Row area of South Belfast on August 15.

The other three shot dead since the hatred turned into bloodshed on July 1 were Stephen Paul, 28, and Craig McCausland, 20 – both in north Belfast and Jameson Lockhart, 25, in the east of the city.