Retired officers slam O'Loan report on loyalist collusion

A group of retired police officers in the North has accused the Police Ombudsman of wrongly impugning their reputations in her recent report on collusion.

In her report, Nuala O'Loan revealed that RUC Special Branch officers had protected a loyalist murder gang responsible for at least 10 killings.

Ms O'Loan's investigation focused solely on a single UVF unit in north Belfast, but she said there was no reason to believe the findings were isolated.

The Retired Police Officers' Association has now published a rebuttal denying that collusion was widespread and insisting that the Ombudsman had no evidence to reach such a conclusion.

It claims her findings were based on basic errors of fact and judgement and is demanding an apology for what it says was the vilification of police officers in the court of public opinion.