FLANAGAN DEFENDS POLICE ACTIONS ON ENQUIRY
Flanagan defends police actions on enquiry
THE CHIEF Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, has defended his force's handling of the Omagh bomb enquiry.
According to the chief constable, the warning given by an anonymous caller to Omagh police station on August 4 was that named individuals planned to move AK47 assault rifles and rocket launchers into the Omagh area. These were to be used in an attack on a police patrol at a location about three miles from the town.
The chief constable said that those named were known criminals. The anonymous caller had said he would phone back, but did not.
Sir Ronnie said: "It had absolutely nothing to do with the attack on Omagh."
In an interview with PA News, the BBC and UTV at the weekend the chief constable said: "The CID officer who received the call consulted his detective chief inspector in CID and together they consulted special branch and outlined the nature of the call.
"The caller, incidentally, also said he would be meeting the first of two named people the following day, and would ring back with further information.
"Special branch carried out checks on the individuals who had been named. They knew from their own knowledge but checked from their records to find none of these people had subversive traces.
"While special branch assessed that the call had no merit, it was arranged that a special branch officer would be in place the following evening if the caller was to ring back and be in a position to question him, just in case in merited further action.
"In the event there was no further call from this person. Special branch officers, who are very experienced, have saved many lives and the sub-divisional commander tells me he would trust the lives of his children to their judgment."
Assessment
The chief constable said an assessment was made at the time that the call did not merit any further action, and indeed there was no semblance of gun or rocket attack on police.
That, he said, indicated they were right.
He went on: "If it had been assessed that this information merited action, I would have expected from any sub-divisional commander, on being faced with the possibility of his patrols being attacked at some unspecified point by gun an rocket attack, would undoubtedly result in that sub-divisional commander having fewer patrols on the ground.
"Even if action had been taken, it would not have been action that in any way could remotely have led to interception of a bomb that was en route to Omagh.
Sir Ronnie also rejected any suggestion that special branch officers would withhold information of an impending atrocity in order to protect informers or agents.
"There are no special branch assets either being protected, or could be protected, in this manner," he said.
The chief constable asked for more time to make a response, but that request was refused by the Ombudsman's office.
Said a spokesman for the Police Service: "It has always been made clear that primary to our considerations are the feelings of the bereaved families, the injured, their families and other victims of the Omagh atrocity.
"It is of critical importance that responses to to them are utterly accurate and factually based. What we are in possession of - we believed provided in confidence -is a draft report with a request for comment on the factual accuracy.
"We consider this report contains so many significant factual, inaccuracies, unwarranted assumptions, misunderstandings and material omissions that a request has been made to the Ombudsman's office for a reasonable period of time to respond in detail with what we see as the serious deficiencies of this report.
"Until we have has reasonable time to present to the Ombudsman's office the opportunity to correct the report, it is considered inappropriate to comment on what was supposed to have been a confidentially provided report, other than to say that it is absolutely rejected that either information provided by an agent code named Fulton, or an anonymous caller on August 4, could have led to the prevention of this atrocity".
THE CHIEF Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, has defended his force's handling of the Omagh bomb enquiry.
According to the chief constable, the warning given by an anonymous caller to Omagh police station on August 4 was that named individuals planned to move AK47 assault rifles and rocket launchers into the Omagh area. These were to be used in an attack on a police patrol at a location about three miles from the town.
The chief constable said that those named were known criminals. The anonymous caller had said he would phone back, but did not.
Sir Ronnie said: "It had absolutely nothing to do with the attack on Omagh."
In an interview with PA News, the BBC and UTV at the weekend the chief constable said: "The CID officer who received the call consulted his detective chief inspector in CID and together they consulted special branch and outlined the nature of the call.
"The caller, incidentally, also said he would be meeting the first of two named people the following day, and would ring back with further information.
"Special branch carried out checks on the individuals who had been named. They knew from their own knowledge but checked from their records to find none of these people had subversive traces.
"While special branch assessed that the call had no merit, it was arranged that a special branch officer would be in place the following evening if the caller was to ring back and be in a position to question him, just in case in merited further action.
"In the event there was no further call from this person. Special branch officers, who are very experienced, have saved many lives and the sub-divisional commander tells me he would trust the lives of his children to their judgment."
Assessment
The chief constable said an assessment was made at the time that the call did not merit any further action, and indeed there was no semblance of gun or rocket attack on police.
That, he said, indicated they were right.
He went on: "If it had been assessed that this information merited action, I would have expected from any sub-divisional commander, on being faced with the possibility of his patrols being attacked at some unspecified point by gun an rocket attack, would undoubtedly result in that sub-divisional commander having fewer patrols on the ground.
"Even if action had been taken, it would not have been action that in any way could remotely have led to interception of a bomb that was en route to Omagh.
Sir Ronnie also rejected any suggestion that special branch officers would withhold information of an impending atrocity in order to protect informers or agents.
"There are no special branch assets either being protected, or could be protected, in this manner," he said.
The chief constable asked for more time to make a response, but that request was refused by the Ombudsman's office.
Said a spokesman for the Police Service: "It has always been made clear that primary to our considerations are the feelings of the bereaved families, the injured, their families and other victims of the Omagh atrocity.
"It is of critical importance that responses to to them are utterly accurate and factually based. What we are in possession of - we believed provided in confidence -is a draft report with a request for comment on the factual accuracy.
"We consider this report contains so many significant factual, inaccuracies, unwarranted assumptions, misunderstandings and material omissions that a request has been made to the Ombudsman's office for a reasonable period of time to respond in detail with what we see as the serious deficiencies of this report.
"Until we have has reasonable time to present to the Ombudsman's office the opportunity to correct the report, it is considered inappropriate to comment on what was supposed to have been a confidentially provided report, other than to say that it is absolutely rejected that either information provided by an agent code named Fulton, or an anonymous caller on August 4, could have led to the prevention of this atrocity".
Further Information
Publisher: TYRONE CONSTITUTION
Ref: TC/0959
Published Date: 13-Dec-01
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