In yet another (in a now long line) of failed dirty tricks style attempts to target and wrongfully convict members of the IRSP, using unfounded and bizarre allegations; 3 PSNI liars were exposed in court on Friday as having concocted a fantasy story as a means to arrest and charge a long standing member of the party from the Divis area.
The former Republican Socialist POW and long-standing member of the party had been stopped by the PSNI/RUC in April in what appeared to be another random case of harassment against the man, who routinely has his vehicle stopped and searched by the Crown Forces.
During a verbal exchange with Police, one officer proceeded to make a bizarre allegation against the IRSP member, accusing him of driving his car towards him and striking his legs as he went. In what was a blatant attempt to procure a sham prosecution, the lying officer (in collusion with his two colleagues) then reported the man to the Public Prosecution Service and a case was commenced against him.
Bizarre affidavits were offered by the prosecution in the run up to the trial, from the three PSNI officers responsible, all of which claimed that the accused had been stopped after “giving the fingers” to a Police car, with all three again claiming further that on being stopped and asked about this he had driven his car and collided with the PSNI officer questioning him.
Usually on these occasions, the sworn word of three PSNI officers would provide an air tight case, particularly against that of a lone former Republican prisoner and in an environment where the PSNI and the state are determined to claim IRSP scalps for imprisonment using any means necessary.
Unfortunately for the three lying PSNI men, a local citizen had captured the actual incident on his home CCTV system and had offered it to the IRSP in defence of their member. Low and behold, the footage showed nothing more sinister than a man’s car being prompted to stop by a PSNI land rover, an officer disembarking from the land rover to speak to him, before returning to his vehicle prompting the IRSP member to drive off innocently and without incident.
The subsequent three affidavits were a work of collective PSNI fantasy, no more, no less.
In what can only be described as surreal scenes in court, Judge Fiona Brady, upon watching the footage (which ran completely contrary to simultaneous accounts of the PSNI officers who had clearly lied on oath), immediately acquitted the IRSP member of the false and malicious charge against him.
Needless to say, the Judge was less than impressed by attempts by Police to refute the irrefutable; and while prosecution barristers attempted to protest that they had not had have long enough time to consider the footage, the Judge promptly referred all three lying Police men themselves to the Public Prosecution Service.
So desperate were the PSNI to secure a public relations score against the IRSP in this case, a Photographer for a well-known gutter rag had been briefed and was waiting for the accused to leave the court, no doubt in hope of an opportunistic sensationalist photograph. He was instead spotted skulking off empty handed by amused party security officers.
The desperate attempts by the PSNI to pursue a prosecution of a respected IRSP member in this case, exposes a wider long running campaign by that force to target Republican Socialists (and Republicans in general) for harassment, arrest and imprisonment, using mainly, tactics of lies, subterfuge and downright mistruth. As a force they simply cannot be believed.
The three lying PSNI officers in this case were most likely carrying out orders from their superiors, yet it is they who will be left to face the music alone, the fact that they are now being hung out to dry should act as a professional warning to other officers who would pursue Republican activists with such glee.
Once again, the IRSP appeal to all political nationally minded parties in West Belfast and beyond to withdraw support and recognition from this discredited MI5 led force.
