Craig to Press Chief Constable on Revelations of Police Interference in McGeough Case 2nd April 2014 DUP Policing Board member Jonathan Craig is to raise the shocking evidence from former senior police officer Norman Baxter with the Chief Constable at tomorrows meeting of the Policing Board. At todays meeting of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at Westminster Mr Baxter revealed that pressure was put on him from within the Police Service to release Gerry McGeough and Vincent McAnespy who had been arrested in relation to the attempted murder of Cllr Sammy Brush, following a demand by the Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. Mr Craig said, The evidence from Norman Baxter today will shock many people. We should not be surprised of course that Sinn Feins opposition to political policing does not apply when they are attempting to interfere with justice. However the revelation that pressure was placed on Mr Baxter from within the police itself following a call from Downing Street at the behest of Gerry Adams, is extremely disturbing. Mr Baxter rightly viewed such a demand as an attempt to pervert the course of justice and thanks to that Gerry McGeough was convicted of his role in the crime against my party colleague. I will be asking the Chief Constable exactly what knowledge he has about this event and who made that call to Mr Baxter. This attempt to influence an ongoing case was not an issue that the Policing Board was briefed about and it is worth comparing Mr Baxters evidence to the claim last month that the Policing Board had been briefed about the OTR scheme. Mr Baxter, who headed up Operation Rapid within the PSNI made it quite clear that he only became aware of the administrative scheme run by the NIO following the Downey judgement. When the man charged with reviewing cases within the police was not aware of the scheme it is ludicrous to claim that Policing Board members somehow knew all about it.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 21:19:19 +0000
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