No Justice for victim’s families

In previous blogs I talked about the issue that was dominating the news, that issue was of course devolution of policing and justice to Northern Ireland, whilst our politicians love to bang on about this subject to anybody that will listen it seems that the ordinary people of Northern Ireland don’t share the politicians enthusiasm on who has responsibility of our country’s policing and justice. At present Policing and justice matters remains the responsibility of the UK Government and Parliament at Westminster.

People of Northern Ireland would show more interest in this issue if politicians did their job better by demonstrating to people how this will have an effect on their lives and how it is significant to them, in the news this past week there has been a few examples of families who feel hard done by at a lack of justice, and these are regular people in terrible circumstances that anyone could find themselves in.

As mentioned in the previous blog, Harry Holland’s family attended a meeting with the British Attorney General Baroness Scotland, to protest against the sentences served out to the teenagers involved in Mr Holland’s death. Four teenagers were arrested for participation in his death, but the three that were charged received only sixteen years in jail between them.

On the Stephen Nolan radio show this week, Stephen spoke to Denise Brennan whose son David was killed by a drunk hit-and-run driver in April this year. David was walking home when he was struck by a car, the driver of the car Andrew McGlinchey drove on and left David to die on the road, he later removed all number plates and badges from the car and set fire to it.

McGlinchey admitted causing death by careless driving with excess alcohol in his system, he also admitted failing to stop, remain, or report the accident. At Londonderry Magistrates Court he was sentenced to four and a half years, but he was told he would serve half his sentence in jail before being released on licence for the remainder of his sentence. He was also banned from driving for seven years.

Not many people who would describe these sentences as fair or just, but imagine how helpless the families of the victims must feel when these meagre sentences are handed down to the people that killed their loved ones. If responsibilities for policing and justice lay with the Northern Ireland Assembly, then our politicians here in Northern Ireland would be directly accountable to people like Harry Holland’s family, David Brennan’s family and the parents of Debbie McComb.

Debbie was a fifteen year old schoolgirl from west Belfast, she was brutally killed in March 2002 when a joy rider speeding in a stolen car ploughed into a group of people on the Upper Springfield Road, and she was flung into the air and carried on the bonnet for some distance along the road.

Harry Marley was driving the car and was charged with causing death by dangerous driving, he fought the charge every step of the way and never showed any remorse for killing Debbie, in fact members of her family said he mocked and abused them at various court appearances. At the time Marley had 58 convictions on his record he was sentenced to nine years for causing Debbie’s death and a further three years for a series of robberies he committed on the day of her death, Marley lodged an appeal which was unsuccessful.

Harry Marley received automatic remission so he only served six years of his sentence (four & half for Debbie’s death), he was released on licence in March 2008, then a year later on 24th March 2009, Marley and another man bought a car and while drunk they began joyriding around the Antrim Road, they were hanging out of the car shouting abuse and obscenities at passing schoolgirls and motorists. Police were called and the two men were arrested, Marley was convicted of six motoring offences including dangerous driving. Jailing Marley for four and a half years and imposing an 18 month probation order Judge Miller said

“The Court can not lose sight of the fact that this escapade took place in a very busy area of Belfast around eight o’clock in the morning and while people were heading to work and children were going to school.” “They had a minimum amount of control of the vehicle and within a short period of time the vehicle had lost its wheel, the consequences that could have followed from his actions could have well mirrored the actions of 2002.”

There are not many people in Northern Ireland that would say they are entirely happy with the judicial system in this country and surely the best way forward is to have the power for these matters held here in our own country, then the people could petition and appeal to the politicians when they feel justice has not been carried out sufficiently and they could demand changes in the laws. The families of Harry Holland, David Brennan and Debbie McComb all feel Justice was not carried out sufficiently and they all have unanswered questions but don’t know where to turn for answers.

Holland family make “Compelling case” to Attorney General

Holland family make “Compelling case” to Attorney General
The family of Harry Holland the West Belfast greengrocer who was killed near his home two years ago have met with the British Attorney General Baroness Scotland this week to protest at the sentences that were handed out to those involved in his death, members of Mr Holland’s family were joined by the West Belfast MP Gerry Adams.
The 65 year-old was stabbed in the head with a screwdriver when he tried to stop a group of joy riders who were trying to break into his delivery van in September 2007 he was found outside his house by neighbours and he later died in hospital.
Two teenage boys and two teenage girls were arrested for Harry’s murder, but one of the girls was not charged. Before the case went to court, the Public Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence to charge Patrick Crossen and the other girl with murder.

The 17 year-old girl who can’t be named for legal reasons admitted to affray and common assault and she has been placed on probation for two years, Patrick Crossen (18) was given four years for attempted affray and possession of an offensive weapon and 18 year-old Stephen McKee was convicted of murder and sentenced to a minimum of twelve years.
After the meeting Gerry Adams said that the PPS did not handle the case properly and the Holland family had made “A compelling case to the British Attorney General about the inadequate way the PPS dealt with this case” The Attorney General has agreed to review the points put to them by the Holland family and come back to them on the matter. After the meeting Harry’s daughter Sarah said “ There are questions we have and we still want answers, why was the decision made to drop the charges against two of the defendants from murder to affray and common assault? Who endorsed this? How did it go from murder charges to a situation where one of the defendants walked free?” Sarah later said that they were pleased that Baroness Scotland agreed to reflect on the case, but that important questions still remained unanswered.

Policing and Justice Debate continues
The policing and justice debate continued this week and it still looks like neither of our main political parties are willing to budge an inch on the issue, Sinn Fein are again accusing the DUP of placing unnecessary object’s in the way of the issue; first it was the Parades Commission and now this week the phasing out of the full-time police reserve was brought into the mix (DUP leader Peter Robinson has now said this will not be a pre-condition for the devolution of policing and justice powers, although his DUP colleague Jeffrey Donaldson said earlier in the week that it would be). Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness warned that the political process could be heading for “Deep trouble” unless a date is set by Christmas for transferring powers from Westminster to Stormont.
The DUP insists they will not advance with devolution unless the unionist community has confidence on the issue, and how they will accomplish that remains uncertain as the unionist community is undoubtedly fractured at the minute. The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) is still making noises from the background and the DUP is well aware that traditional loyalist voters will change their vote to TUV if the DUP get issues like policing and justice wrong, The TUV is already making all the right sounds to seduce more hard-line loyalists and at their party conference in east Belfast last week they said they are “implacably opposed to the transfer of policing and justice powers to a failed Executive in which Sinn Fein exercises a power of veto” they also said to devolve powers to an Executive where Martin McGuinness, Conor Murphy and Gerry Kelly could be given sight of policing issues was “treachery.”


One priest is arrested and another is released
Two Irish priests were in the news this week but for very different reasons, the first was Father Michael Sinnott who while doing missionary work in the Philippines last month was kidnapped by gunmen, he was released yesterday after what Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin described as “a major diplomatic effort by the Irish and Filipino Governments”. The other priest is 81 year-old Father Francis Markey who was arrested at his home in America, Father Markey is wanted by Irish police about offences against a 15 year-old boy in the late 1960s, and he is now facing US extradition proceedings. These two stories highlight the complexity of the modern day Catholic Church.

Shambles at the Brandywell
Derry City Football Club has got into a real mess; the club was expelled from the League of Ireland after the FAI said they broke regulations regarding player’s contracts. The Candystripes were stripped of league status last weekend over allegations the club gave its players secondary, unofficial contracts.
FAI Chief Executive, John Delaney, said the organisation wants to establish the extent of the club's debt. It is thought the range of the debt may be in the region of £500,000 to £800,000.

Gaddafi to compensate protestant victims

The DUP released a statement on their website today stating that they have had a series of meetings at a very high level in Tripoli at the invitation of the Libyan authorities- The meetings were held to negotiate with the Libyan government over compensation for protestant victims of IRA violence, The DUP believe that Libya should compensate the victims because Colonel Gaddafi supplied the IRA with weapons and explosives during the troubles, the DUP said their MPs met with the Mayor of Tripoli, the Libyan minister for Europe and the Speaker of the General Peoples Congress. On his return from Libya Nigel Dodds said “This has been a constructive and positive first direct engagement with the Libyan authorities. It constitutes a major milestone in our campaign on behalf of Libyan involvement in helping IRA terrorism.”

The IRA’s connection with Libya began in 1972 when Libya’s eccentric leader Colonel Mummar Gaddafi praised the IRA as allies in a struggle against Western imperialism. The relationship was exposed in March 1973 when the Irish navy found a five-ton arsenal of weaponry provided by the Libyan government onboard a ship called the Claudia, off the coast of County Waterford. Joe Cahill (one of the founders of the Provisional IRA) was arrested onboard together with five others. The French authorities apprehended another ship called Eskund with 150 tonnes of weaponry that was on its way to Ireland and it is believed that at least three substantial shipments of arms from Libya reached the IRA.

So there is little doubt that Gaddafi assisted the IRA in their campaign of violence which resulted in a lot of innocent people dying, but as with everything in Northern Ireland there are two sides to the story and two sides to the community. What about catholic victims or IRA violence? Who is going to negotiate with Libya on their behalf? And what about catholic victims who were shot bombed and killed by other groups during the troubles?

When the DUP proposed the motion (compensation from Libyan Government) to the Northern Ireland Assembly on 14th of September 2009, Sinn Fein opposed the motion, in the Assembly Gerry Adams said, “It is unfair and partisan. Let me say for the record that Sinn Fein is not opposed to any victims lobbying any Government anywhere in the world for compensation.” The Sinn Fein President went on to say “ It would have been better had the members who proposed this motion consulted with other parties to bring forward a motion that would have united, rather than divided, us and would have reflected the suffering of all victims. The motion suggests that there is a hierarchy of victims, and that is wrong. The only way that political parties, in particular, and society in general can deal properly with all these issues is on the basis of equality of treatment for all. The motion, therefore, fails on that most important hurdle.”

The UUP supported the motion as did the Alliance party and SDLP, but SDLP MLA Alex Attwood said in the Assembly “From the outset, I wish to make it clear that, with caution, the SDLP backs the motion. An amendment to the motion was not accepted by the speaker, and we believe that the amendment would have more generously reflected the situation with respect to victims and survivors.”

I think the SDLP have the most pragmatic approach to this motion, their East Derry MLA John Dallat said “Nigel Dodds should be commended for his efforts to hold the Libyan regime to account for the Semtex and AK47s it supplied to the provisional murder machine. However for the sake of balance and the Shared Future to which his party is at least theoretically committed, he might want to look at the source of other weapons which killed people in large numbers. Collusion with rogue members of the security forces was of course a main source of weapons for the loyalist murder gangs. But there was also substantial shipment of arms from apartheid South Africa organised via Ulster Resistance at a time when First Minister Peter Robinson was sporting a Para-style red beret, holding rallies on hill-tops and invading County Monaghan. So if Nigel Dodds does get his delegation to Tripoli, he might like to continue southwards to Pretoria and check out who signed off on the weapons to Ulster Resistance.”

Devolution of Policing & Justice to Northern Ireland

The devolution of policing and justice has always been a contentious issue between political parties in Northern Ireland, back in 1999 when power over matters such as Education, Health and Agriculture were devolved to the N.I Assembly, policing and justice was shelved until a later day. Well that day has arrived and last week Prime Minister Gordon Brown unveiled a proposed budget to Northern Ireland’s first and deputy first minister’s, Gordon Brown said his Billion-pound offer to complete devolution in Northern Ireland would secure peace and prosperity in the region but the two main political parties are feeling far from peaceful and prosperous.

Deputy first minister Martin McGuiness said the devolution of policing and justice was achievable by Christmas, his counterpart in the OFMDFM Peter Robinson said “I think any fool can produce a wants list but the proposals that are presented by the Prime Minister have to be viewed by all of us.” The First minister also said his party would only agree to transferring law and order responsibilities from Westminster if changes were made to the current process of managing contentious events in the summer marching season.

Sinn Fein says that the DUP are placing obstacles in the way of a deal being done after outstanding financial issues were resolved, but the DUP have always maintained that transferring of policing and justice powers to Stormont will only happen on their terms and will only happen when the unionist community have confidence

• In the structural arrangements for the transfer of such sensitive functions
• In the person who will hold responsibility as Justice Minister and
• That there is adequate funding available to carry out the functions which are devolved.

The community that the DUP speaks of include the hard-line Traditional Unionist Voice party (TUV), in their 2009 election manifesto TUV make it clear that they believe Sinn Fein is not fit for government, they say – TUV continues to be unalterably opposed to the devolution of policing and justice to an Assembly and Executive in which IRA/Sinn Fein, which gleefully murdered policemen and judges, holds sway.

Sinn Fein believe that the powers should have been devolved long ago, they think devolution would make the Justice system more accountable and they no longer want the powers being exercised by a British minister in Westminster. Responding to Peter Robinson’s remarks in parliament on Tuesday when he said the parades commission should be abolished “to increase confidence in devolved policing and justice powers”, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams thinks citing the parades issue as a pre-condition is unacceptable, he said “This is not sincere, genuine or a serious effort to resolve the issue of Orange parades.”
 

So what happens now? And what do other politicians and representatives think of the current situation?

• Sinn Fein are happy to accept the deal on offer from Gordon Brown

• Conservative party leader David Cameron said he will respect the prime minister’s agreement with Northern Ireland leaders

• Northern Ireland’s new Chief Constable Matt Baggott has been briefed on the financial package by government officials and has discussed the offer with Policing Board chairman Barry Gilligan, he said “We welcome the clarification we have received and are encouraged by the progress.”

• PUP leader Dawn Purvis, welcomed Gordon Brown’s offer and called on party leaders to complete devolution

• Alliance party leader David Ford, who is widely expected to be appointed justice minister, not surprisingly said he believed Gordon Brown’s financial plan represented a reasonable offer

• UUP leader Sir Reg Empey, said his party were reserving judgment on its position regarding the financial deal

• SDLP policing spokesman Alex Attwood said a financial deal may have been reached but “political certainty” was less secure, he believes the DUP will continue to place obstacle’s in the way of devolution

• TUV leader Jim Allister, said he opposed giving republicans any role in overseeing policing and justice

• The DUP is in favour of the devolution of policing and justice powers but take a more cautious line than Sinn Fein


So as usual our political party leaders can’t agree on the best way forward and it looks like they will continue to debate over devolution, don’t be surprised if the DUP try and align other issues with the devolution of policing and justice e.g. north- south bodies and a potential review of the Good Friday Agreement.

BBC scandals

It seems that over the past few years the BBC is never far away from scandal or controversy, recently we have all witnessed the media uproar over Strictly come dancing’s Anton Du Beke’s racist remarks to his celeb dancing partner Laila Rouass, Anton apologised and was slapped on the wrist, then Bruce Forsythe made some ill-advised comments regarding the scandal, he too was wrist slapped and he too apologised, no one was suspended, no one was sacked and the scandal was all over. But not all of BBC scandals have finished so quickly, not all of them have been about race, and not everyone has kept their job. In the past few years the BBC have been involved in all sorts of scandals with all sorts of repercussions, there has been scandals and controversy over everything from weapons of mass destruction to the naming of the BluePeter cat
Who can forget the “Sachsgate” scandal, there was a real mixture of opinions on what punishments should be dished out, and some people thought that suspending Russell Brand and Jonathon Ross was not enough. The BBC received over 44,000 complaints about the prank calls that Jonathon Ross and Russell Brand made on Brand’s BBC radio 2 show, (the BBC only received 2 complaints in the week after the show was broadcast, and the following week the Mail on Sunday ran the story which resulted in a lot of media coverage, and the complaints rose to over 44,000). Ross and Brand apologised to Andrew Sachs and his granddaughter, and the BBC director general Mark Thompson issued a personal and unreserved apology to Mr Sachs, but the scandal did not end there, eventually Russell Brand resigned along with Radio 2 controller Leslie Douglas and head of compliance Dave Barber. OFCOM fined the BBC £150,000 and they described the broadcast of the messages left on Mr Sachs voicemail as “gratuitously, offensive, humiliating and demeaning.” Even the Prime Minister Gordon brown got involved when he described Brand and Ross’s behaviour as “inappropriate and unacceptable.”

The former Prime Minister Tony Blair was involved in the “Dr David Kelly” scandal which started in September 2002 when the British Government produced a dossier about alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the dossier included a claim that the weapons could be deployed within 45 minutes. Then in May 2003, BBC radio 4 Today programme’s defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan broadcasts report of claims that Downing street had “sexed up” the dossier, against the wishes of intelligence services. Dr David Kelly a Ministry of Defence scientist was named as the suspected source on 10th of July 2003, while the government continued to deny the story. One week after Dr Kelly was named as the source, the scientist was found dead, this led to a 328 page report conducted by Lord Hutton, into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr Kelly.

The Hutton report concluded the following:
· Dr David Kelly took his own life and no third party was involved
· No one involved could have contemplated that Kelly would take his own life as a result of the pressures he felt.
· Can not be certain of factors that drove Dr Kelly to suicide.
· Dr Kelly probably killed himself, because of extreme loss of self-esteem and would probably have seen himself as being publicly disgraced.
· Andrew Gilligan’s report that Downing Street “probably knew” the 45 minute claim in its Iraq dossier was wrong was a grave allegation and attacked the integrity of the government and the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC).
· Whether or not that source was subsequently shown to be unreliable, the central allegation made by Andrew Gilligan in his BBC report was unfounded.
· Editorial system at the BBC was defective in allowing Gilligan’s report to go to air without seeing a script.
· BBC management failed to make an examination of Mr Gilligan’s notes of the interview with Dr Kelly.
· There was a defect in the BBC’s management system relating to the way complaints were investigated.
· The Prime Minister’s desire to have as compelling a dossier as possible may have subconsciously influenced the (JIC) to make the language of the dossier stronger than they would otherwise have done.
· There was no underhand government strategy to name Dr Kelly.
· The MoD failed to tell Dr Kelly his name would be made public.
· MoD did take some steps to help Dr Kelly once his name was made public.
· The MoD was at fault in the way it dealt with Dr Kelly once his name was made public.

The Hutton report was released on 28th January 2004, and it was critical of Andrew Gilligan and of the BBC’s management processes and standards of journalism, consequently the chairman of the BBC, Gavyn Davies, the director general Greg Dyke and Andrew Gilligan resigned. Andrew Gilligan admitted that some of his story was wrong and he apologised for that, but he also said “I love the BBC and I am resigning because I want to protect it. I accept my part in the crisis which has befallen the organisation, but a greater part has been played by the unbalanced judgments of Lord Hutton.” Greg Dyke told BBC staff "I don't want to go. But if in the end you screw up you have to go." And Gavyn Davies said in his resignation statement that no-one at the BBC in the past year had deliberately misled the public, and that no one had acted out of malign motivation. Tony Blair and the government came through the crisis relatively unscathed as the Hutton report had found no wrong doing on behalf of the government, Tony Blair said the report showed "the allegation that I or anybody else lied to the House or deliberately misled the country by falsifying intelligence of weapons of mass destruction is itself the real lie".

I could write many more pages about the many more BBC scandals and controversies that we have witnessed over the last decade or so, but of course I wont, what I will do is finish this blog with an altogether more trivial scandal. As I mentioned near the start of this blog, the much loved children’s TV programme Blue Peter, found themselves caught up in a scandal back in 2007, the controversy was over an online poll to name the new Blue peter cat. 40,000 people voted that the kitten should be named Cookie, but Blue Peter producers decided Socks was a “more suitable name”. Richard Marson, the Blue Peter editor during the “Socksgate” scandal was moved from his post and subsequently quit the BBC. Blue Peter presenter Zoe Salmon said on air that although voters voted for the kitten to be named Cookie, the kitten was called Socks, she also said “That was wrong, and so today we would like to say that we are sorry”.

What do you think about these scandals? Did the BBC deal correctly with the scandals? How can they prevent such controversy or scandal in the future? Do the public or the BBC overreact to the scandals?