RUC Special Branch successor’s guilty lapse in investigation into wounding of PSNI Gaelic football team captain

FOUR SENIOR PSNI OFFICERS who were members of the force’s C3 Intelligence Branch failed to pass on information to detectives investigating the bomb attack that seriously injured PSNI Constable Peadar Heffron in January 2010, according to a report by the Police Ombudsman released recently.

According to Sinn Féin Assembly member Pat Sheehan, who sits on the Policing Board, the report raises serious questions about the “role and activities of C3 which in this case are reminiscent of the bad policing we experienced in the past”.

Sheehan added:

“Not only did the report highlight the failure of members of C3 to provide information it found that at least one officer obstructed the Ombudsman’s investigation.”

Sheehan also slammed the PSNI over the decision by a senior officer to reduce the sanctions imposed on two officers by the Ombudsman while the sanctions imposed on two others have yet to be acted on.

“This is totally unacceptable and the PSNI must explain why this decision was taken. The PSNI Chief Constable also needs to take action and implement the recommendations of the Police Ombudsman.”

The quartet – two detective superintendents and two detective sergeants – were the subject of a Police Ombudsman’s investigation after it emerged that a long-standing informer came forward to say he had passed on information about the attack which he believed could have been prevented.

According to the Ombudsman, investigators from his office spoke to the informer who said he had a text which claimed an attack on the PSNI was to take place at Milltown, which he believed at the time was a reference to west Belfast. The attack on Constable Heffron occurred as he travelled along the Milltown Road, near Randalstown in County Antrim.

In his report, published on Thursday 17 December, Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire said there was insufficient evidence to support the claim that the attack on Heffron, a fluent Irish speaker and captain of the PSNI’s Gaelic football team, could have been prevented.

Heffron lost a leg in the attack and has since left the PSNI.

It was while carrying out their inquiries that investigators from Dr Maguire’s office became concerned that members of the C3 intelligence unit were not co-operating with the detectives probing the attack on Heffron.

Despite their claims that they had supplied information to investigating officers the Ombudsman found no evidence to support their claims.

The Ombudsman said that although the information did not lead to “significant new evidence”, it did lead to the investigation losing momentum.

PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris, former head of C3, told the media that “an administrative failing” led to the delay in the information being passed on by C3. He also said that the two detective superintendents were being disciplined and he was considering how to discipline the sergeants.

In May 2014 it was revealed that Drew Harris and retired Deputy Chief Constable Judith Gillespie addressed meetings with retired RUC and PSNI personnel where it is believed they were briefed on how to deal with inquests into controversial killings by state forces, including the RUC. Advisers from the PSNI’s Legacy Support Unit also attended.

Gillespie addressed the meeting on “the legacy landscape” while Harris spoke about “the view from crime operations”.

Crime Operations, which Harris headed up before his promotion, includes the C3 intelligence unit, formerly RUC Special Branch.

It was members of C3 who acted as ‘gatekeepers’, deciding what information would be passed to investigators and the Historical Enquiries Team (HET).

This knowledge, added to the fact that 15 of the 17 HET investigators were either retired RUC or PSNI members, closes the circle showing how Special Branch and its successor, C3, is a malign force with the power to ensure that the state and its agents escape with impunity.