Anger as murder charges are quietly dropped

An Ardoyne man fears for his life after charges of killing a 26-year-old RUC member Edward Spence in Lower Crescent in South Belfast in 1991 were quietly withdrawn by the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) at a sitting of Belfast Petty Sessions on Friday 31 October.

In June this year the PSNI claimed fingerprints belonging to 34-year-old Paul Holland were found on a plastic bag in an abandoned getaway car and he was charged with the killing. However, all charges were withdrawn last week without explanation

"They gave me no explanation," said Holland. "For the past four months I have had to live with this hanging over me. I have had to live with the thought of going to jail for a long time while I was innocent."

The North Belfast man said he voluntarily attended a PSNI interview in June after his home was raided while he was out, determined to clear his name.

"My arrest was carried out in a blaze of publicity and was carried in every newspaper and some people were calling me cop killer. People should now know I had nothing to do with this."

He added that the PSNI's actions have now placed his life in danger.

"I have had to have personal security in the past few months, before that I had none. I was accused of killing a cop by the PSNI and I live close to Glenbryn, that creates its own problems."

Holland's solicitor, Philip Breen said the murder charge was never going to stick. "We didn't expect this to go to trial but we never expected the charges to be withdrawn so quickly. Paul was charged in a blaze of publicity but the charges were withdrawn very quietly. That's the way the PSNI and DPP do things."

UDA attack pensioner's home

The home of a 75-year-old Catholic widow was attacked with paint bombs by loyalists at around 1am on Thursday 30 October.

A window was smashed when a number of paint bombs hit the pensioner's windows. The living room curtains, radiators and a television were splattered with red and blue paint.

Ellen Denvir said it was a terrible shock when her Mill Road home in Newtownabbey came under attack. "I was in bed when I heard smashing glass. I got up and looked out through the open blind and I saw five or six people outside the front of the house, so I knew something had happened."

Denvir estimated her Mill Road home has been attacked between ten and 15 times since she and her family were forced to move to the area from Rathcoole over 30 years ago.

Her son Colin, who lives close to his mother, said the living room window had been reinforced since the last attack. "Why can't a woman my mother's age be left in peace?" he asked. "The only interest she has is her home and these people are going out of their way to damage it. It's not personal, it's because she is a Catholic."

Sinn Féin's Martin Meehan said he was in no doubt the UDA from the nearby loyalist Rathcoole estate were behind this latest attack.

"These sectarian attacks are being orchestrated by the UDA in an attempt to stamp their authority in the Newtownabbey area and drive Catholics out," he said. "The people who carried out this sectarian attack on a pensioner will say they did it for God and Ulster. Well. God help Ulster."

A shop further up the Mill Road was also targeted by loyalist petrol bombers. One car was destroyed and two others were damaged when up to five petrol bombs were thrown.

Former UUP chief faces 30 charges

The former chief executive of the Ulster Unionist Party, Alastair Patterson, was charged on Thursday 31 October with 30 offences, 17 counts of theft and 13 of false accounting. He is expected to appear at Omagh Magistrates' Court on Tuesday 11 November.

Patterson, 58, was one of two employees who were questioned in July by the PSNI investigating allegations of forgery, false accounting and corruption within the Electoral Office in Omagh between 1996 and 2001.

Patterson, from Dungannon, County Tyrone, left the Omagh Electoral Office in 2002 and was appointed as electoral officer and advisor to the Ulster Unionist Party.

Patterson resigned from his position as Ulster Unionist Party chief executive after he was first questioned by the PSNI in July.

An Ulster Unionist Party spokesperson said they noted with regret that charges had been brought against their former chief executive, although "clearly the matter is now sub judice and we are not in a position to offer any further comment".

Patterson was the deputy returning officer who announced the election of Hunger Striker Bobby Sands as MP for Fermanagh/South Tyrone in 1981.

PSNI hound Ógra SF Members

Three members of Ógra Sinn Fhéin were stopped and harassed by members of the PSNI on Sunday night 2 November as they left an Ógra conference in Omagh.

The PSNI read through diaries and documentation relating to the event and confiscated a camera that had been used to take pictures of the conference.

In a separate incident in Omagh, a member of Ogra was stopped by the PSNI and issued with a warning of prosecution relating to the registration plate on his car. The plate concerned is an EU number plate, which the PSNI claimed is illegal and would have to be changed. "The last time we checked, the Six Counties was still in the EU," said West Tyrone Sinn Féin Assembly candidate Barry McElduff, who expressed outrage at the interference of the PSNI in the political life of young people.

"This is a clear case of the PSNI targeting and gathering intelligence on the legitimate political activities of young people in Sinn Féin and is totally unacceptable," he said. "This goes to the heart of the policing problem here. This constant provocation is politically motivated and unaccountable."