Debate contribution: Police Ombudsman: High Court Ruling

Debate contribution by Mr Jon Burrows on 19 May 2026.

MLA: Mr Jon Burrows
Party at the time: Ulster Unionist Party
Date: 19 May 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Matter of the Day
Heading: Police Ombudsman: High Court Ruling
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5549166

Text

Yesterday's judgement at the High Court was a withering indictment of the Office of the Police Ombudsman and of the competence, integrity and fairness of its previous officeholder, Ms Marie Anderson. The ombudsman's job is to investigate, not to adjudicate. It is to look at a complaint or allegation and send a file of evidence to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS), but, no, not Ms Anderson when it comes to how we treat the men and women of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The ombudsman became judge, jury and executioner. Despite her sending files of "evidence", the PPS consistently said that there was nothing to see here. The ombudsman still found a definitive judgement of guilt, however, branding the men and women of the Royal Ulster Constabulary as being involved in collusive behaviour. Yesterday, the judge said that she had acted beyond her powers and that a disclaimer had to go on every one of those reports. History is being rewritten in front of our eyes by the men who now look at me. I look at Mr Kelly, who was a terrorist, and I say this: every terrorist, loyalist or republican, was wrong. Any who wore a uniform and did something wrong — there were few: very, very few — should be held to account, but we have turned the microscope the wrong way round. Some 99% of cases are looking at the law-abiding forces of law and order, who are subjected to endless inquiries, yet loyalists and republicans, who blew people to smithereens, have statues of them erected without planning permission. Such statues remain, and the "First Minister for all" dares to go to the unveilings. In 1890, Rudyard Kipling put it well when describing how this country treats those who put on a uniform and serve:
"For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' 'Chuck him out, the brute!' But it's 'Saviour of 'is country' when the guns begin to shoot".
When the guns began to shoot, those men and women put on the uniform and tackled those who put on a balaclava. They did not disappear people like your organisation did, Mr Kelly. They did not have kangaroo courts or drill into people's knees. They did not lay people down naked at the border with a bag over their head. They did not tar and feather women. They did not tell people that they could not report rapes and sexual assaults. It was the Provisional IRA that did that, yet, somehow, we have ended up in a situation where men and women who served with honour are worried about a knock on the door and being smeared as having engaged in collusive behaviour. It is shameful. Marie Anderson's conduct was shameful. Yesterday was a good day for the Northern Ireland Retired Police Officers Association (NIRPOA). I pay tribute to that organisation.

474 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Flagged Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism

Jev’s structured answers met every documented threshold for flagging as culture-war activity.

Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.79 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
Criteria met: Identity framing (0.69).
The text adopts the identity-based framing in its own voice (0.89).
Subject area: Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism.
All thresholds for flagging were met.

What a flag means. A flag means the activity contains at least one instance of culture-war framing that met the published test. It does not mean the whole activity is divisive, or that its substantive arguments are wrong.

This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.

Jev’s structured answers

Probability that each statement is true of this text (0 = no, 1 = yes). A criterion counts as met at 0.60 or above.
Question	Probability	Met?
Identity framing	0.69	Yes
Sectarian or communal antagonism	0.36	No
Cultural grievance politics	0.46	No
Dog-whistle messaging	0.59	No
Controversy escalation	0.52	No
Legitimate policy scrutiny	0.26	No
Overall judgement	0.79	Above flagging threshold

Context and attribution (stance)
Option	Probability
No identity-based framing	0.05
Reports or questions it	0.00
Criticises or condemns it	0.06
Adopts it (chosen)	0.89

Subject area (top five)
Subject	Probability
Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism	0.80
Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations	0.20
No identity-related subject	0.00
Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials	0.00
Parades, bonfires and commemorations	0.00

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:42 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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A second, larger AI model can read this record again, without being told the MLA’s name or party, against the same published rubric. It also asks whether the activity mainly serves the public interest or mainly advances division. Its verdict replaces the current one, whichever way it goes, and its reasons are published here. Each record can have one second assessment.

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