Process to appoint new chief con ‘compromised’

DUP slam SF chief on policing row

THE process to appoint a new PSNI chief constable has been compromised, DUP leader Arlene Foster claimed yesterday.

She urged the Policing Board to take legal opinion after Sinn Fein chief Mary Lou Mcdonald said she would have no confidence in any internal candidates for the role.

Mrs Foster told the BBC: “I thought they were very foolish, first of all because essentially what has happened is that the process has now been compromised.

“The leader of one of the political parties involved in the panel has made her feelings quite clear and that of course interferes with due process and the panel has now been compromised.”

Ms Mcdonald said she would not be retracting her controversial comments about who should replace George Hamilton when he retires in June.

She dismissed criticism of her remarks – made after it emerged the PSNI failed to disclose “significant information” relating to the UFF mass shooting at a

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South Belfast bookies – as “political huffing and puffing”.

She added: “There’s nothing to apologise for, there’s no retraction to be made.”

The republican leader insisted she would have “no role” in appointing the next police chief and the Sinn Fein representative on the recruitment panel would follow the rules.

Ms Mcdonald had been speaking after she met families of the five people killed in the 1992 attack on the Ormeau Road shop.

The Police Federation representative body has demanded an apology from Mrs Mcdonald.

Sinn Fein MLA John O’dowd accused the DUP of hypocrisy. He said: “The PSNI’S failure to provide evidence to the Ombudsman on dozens of killings by loyalist death squads is appalling.

“Arlene Foster has had nothing to say about that but is quite happy to attack Sinn Fein.”

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