UUP responds to Ombudsman’s Report on Nelson’s Murder
Ulster Unionist Police Board Member and Lagan Valley MLA Basil McCrea said of the Police Ombudsman’s report today,
“Yet again the Police Ombudsman has clumsily and simplistically waded into our society’s painful past. The murder of Rosemary Nelson was a heinous act – one of many heinous acts that occurred during the Troubles. Ms. O’Loan is very well aware that her actions are contributing to a highly politicised attempt to re-write the history of 30 years of violence.
As our society seeks to move away from three decades of violence and paramilitarism, during which the Royal Ulster Constabulary contained the threat posed by terrorists to the entire community, what has the appearance of ideologically inspired investigations into only part of our past have the potential to undermine political progress.
There can be no doubt that we as a society should hold the agents of the State to infinitely higher standards than the actions of those who engaged in terrorist violence. That is not the issue for debate. The debate is about the selective and partisan nature of inquests into our painful and troubled past”.