Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
POLICE IN CLEAR OVER DRUG DEALER MURDER
Ombudsman dismisses cop killing allegation
SENSATIONAL claims a police officer murdered an alleged drug dealer were yesterday dismissed.
Dad-of-four Paul Daly was shot 10 times in an attack on Belfast’s Stephen Street that was blamed on “republican elements”.
Jacqueline Conroy told the inquest into his death she witnessed one of two men opening fire on her partner as they sat together in a car.
The Police Ombudsman started an independent investigation after a man reported claims to cops in the Netherlands.
He said he had been staking out Daly’s home with a view to robbing his “drugs money” when he saw him being following by three cars with police officers in them on the day died.
The man also accused a number of police officers of being involved in a rape.
A statement from the Police Ombudsman said: “Allegations a police officer was involved in the 2001 murder of a drug dealing business partner, have been dismissed following a Police Ombudsman investigation.
“The claim was first raised with police in the Netherlands in December 2010, when a man walked into a Dutch station and said he had information about a murder in Northern Ireland.”
Cops there are said to have tried to contact the man several times before referring the matter to the PSNI, who he spoke to in 2012.
The Ombudsman added: “He told them that in the months before the murder he’d been watching a house in Co Antrim where he believed the victim kept his ‘drugs money’, as he was hoping to steal it. During this time, he said he saw the police officer alleged to have been involved in the murder visiting the house.
“He also said he heard the officer had been in business with the alleged drug dealer, who had threatened to publicly name his alleged business partners.
“On the morning of the murder, he said he had seen the victim and his partner in a small hatchback car which was being followed by three other cars.
“He said he knew the occupants of these vehicles were police officers, as he had previous dealings with them. He believed they were part of a surveillance team.
“Later the same evening he heard the alleged dealer had been murdered in Belfast.”
The man later said “he had decided to come forward with the information as he was fed up being harassed on the basis of false information he believed was being given to police by informers”. The matter was passed to the Ombudsman by the Chief Constable “given the serious nature of the allegations”.
Police Ombudsman investigators then contacted the man but he declined to meet them.
They then reviewed all relevant police information from the original murder investigation.
They added: “Records included a piece of information alleging the murder victim had seen unnamed police officers carrying out a rape, and that he had used this to ‘get police on his side’.
“There was nothing to corroborate this information.
“Enquiries by investigators also established the murder victim had not been under police surveillance on the day of his murder.”
Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire concluded there was no evidence of police involvement in the murder.
ON CLAIMS OVER MURDER