EX-RUC OFFICER WOULD HELP NCROSS-BORDER PROBE
Ex-RUC officer would help cross-border probe
BY ALAN MURRAY
newseditor@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
A FORMER senior RUC officer has said that he would be prepared to give evidence to a cross-border public inquiry into the Omagh atrocity if one was set up.
Retired Assistant Chief Constable Raymond White attended a special presentation by the Omagh Support and Self Help group at Stormont on Tuesday and afterwards said that he would be more than willing to answer whatever questions he could about his knowledge of events at the time.
As the officer in charge of the RUC's Headquarters Crime Department he commissioned a formal review of the first investigation into Omagh and appointed Detective Chief Superintendent Brian McVicar to carry it out.
Yesterday the retired ACC said that he disagreed with many of the findings in Nuala O'Loan's 2001 Report and would welcome the opportunity to hear the former Ombudsman justify her analysis of information and events before a tribunal of inquiry.
The former RUC officer said: "In the immediate aftermath of the atrocity the Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan appointed an experienced team of investigators to undertake the day to day running of the investigation and it fell to me as ACC Crime Department to implement the formal review of the investigation once a certain stage in the enquiry had been reached.
"Even before the review was formally completed, work had already commenced on a major portion of the investigation record to attend to recommendations made by the review team."
Mr White said that he was unaware that intelligence suggesting that Omagh was a target had been available to MI5 at the time.
"As for the assertion by the Omagh Support and Self Help group that information was available as far back as April 1998 that Omagh was a target for the RIRA, I can only say that I was hearing it for the first time when it was stated by Michael Gallagher," he added.
"I don't know to whom such information, if it existed, was provided, or what other detail was made available at the time.
"If the Omagh group achieves its objective of a public cross-border inquiry then I have no doubt this information amongst many other issues will be examined in detail.
"The Omagh victims and their relatives are entitled to have their questions answered on the basis of verified facts and not from speculative analysis or unsubstantiated assertions or assumptions."
BY ALAN MURRAY
newseditor@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
A FORMER senior RUC officer has said that he would be prepared to give evidence to a cross-border public inquiry into the Omagh atrocity if one was set up.
Retired Assistant Chief Constable Raymond White attended a special presentation by the Omagh Support and Self Help group at Stormont on Tuesday and afterwards said that he would be more than willing to answer whatever questions he could about his knowledge of events at the time.
As the officer in charge of the RUC's Headquarters Crime Department he commissioned a formal review of the first investigation into Omagh and appointed Detective Chief Superintendent Brian McVicar to carry it out.
Yesterday the retired ACC said that he disagreed with many of the findings in Nuala O'Loan's 2001 Report and would welcome the opportunity to hear the former Ombudsman justify her analysis of information and events before a tribunal of inquiry.
The former RUC officer said: "In the immediate aftermath of the atrocity the Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan appointed an experienced team of investigators to undertake the day to day running of the investigation and it fell to me as ACC Crime Department to implement the formal review of the investigation once a certain stage in the enquiry had been reached.
"Even before the review was formally completed, work had already commenced on a major portion of the investigation record to attend to recommendations made by the review team."
Mr White said that he was unaware that intelligence suggesting that Omagh was a target had been available to MI5 at the time.
"As for the assertion by the Omagh Support and Self Help group that information was available as far back as April 1998 that Omagh was a target for the RIRA, I can only say that I was hearing it for the first time when it was stated by Michael Gallagher," he added.
"I don't know to whom such information, if it existed, was provided, or what other detail was made available at the time.
"If the Omagh group achieves its objective of a public cross-border inquiry then I have no doubt this information amongst many other issues will be examined in detail.
"The Omagh victims and their relatives are entitled to have their questions answered on the basis of verified facts and not from speculative analysis or unsubstantiated assertions or assumptions."
Further Information
Publisher: BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Ref: BT/1073
Published Date: 07-Apr-08
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