Debate contribution: Police Ombudsman: High Court Ruling
Debate contribution by Mr Keith Buchanan on .
- MLA
- Mr Keith Buchanan
- Party at the time
- Democratic 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 5549172
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I welcome yesterday's High Court ruling that the Police Ombudsman's public statements alleging collusive behaviour by RUC officers must now carry a formal notice warning that the ombudsman exceeded her legal powers. In the eyes of many in the police family, as well as in the wider unionist community, the Office of the Police Ombudsman has become an agent — a vehicle, as it were — for the rewriting of the history of the Troubles. That may be uncomfortable for the Justice Minister, but, for those whom I represent, it is the hard, cold reality. Rebuilding trust and commanding public confidence will be no easy task. It was not and is not the role of the Police Ombudsman to brand former police officers as being guilty of collusion, collusive behaviours or any politically conceived offence without those officers being afforded proper due process. The Police Ombudsman, the Coroners Service or anyone else should not be able to make sweeping allegations of misconduct against those who stood in the gap against a brutal terrorist campaign, all the while ignoring the context of that period and the immense operational and resourcing challenges that the RUC were up against daily. There is a challenge for the Chief Constable in all of this too. What message does it send to those who serve in 2026 that the PSNI is content to dish out compensation in legacy cases on the basis of discredited Police Ombudsman findings of collusion? Where is the regard for the rule of law or the burden of proof? Where is the concern for the public purse? Yesterday's ruling must be seen as a step change in how the ombudsman and the wider criminal justice system treat our ex-service personnel. The DUP will never consent to the airbrushing of history for political expediency. The memory and contribution of those personnel will never be forgotten.
312 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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