PSNI avoid blame as Orangeman gets off

Sinn Féin says the PSNI deliberately frustrated attempts to prosecute a senior member of the Orange Order after loyalist bands breached Parade Commission guidelines during the Whiterock Orange March along the Springfield Road on 28 June 2003.

An investigation by the Police Ombudsman found that the criminal case collapsed because the PSNI did not obtain legal documentation in time to press charges and blamed 'human error' and 'serious flaws' in a PSNI computer system for the blunder.

Sinn Féin Councillor Tom Hartley said many nationalists will be disappointed at the decision of the Ombudsman to "put down to human error this obvious attempt to prevent the prosecution of a senior Orangeman on behalf of the PSNI".