Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan has defended herself after a fierce attack by the chairman of the North's Police Federation, Irwin Montgomery, who said she did not enjoy the confidence of the PSNI and that if she retires as scheduled next year she should be replaced by a senior judge.
"What is he afraid of?" responded Mrs O'Loan.
Mr Montgomery, head of the representative body for PSNI officers, portrayed Mrs O'Loan as a publicity-seeking official who had damaged police morale, who pressed ahead with high profile damaging and "disastrous" cases against police officers, and who should not be pursuing historic cases from the period of alleged RUC misconduct.
He told the annual meeting of the federation yesterday that after six years in office she had failed to secure the confidence of the PSNI and that her seven-year tenure to next year was too long.
Mr Montgomery in his key address at the La Mon Hotel in east Belfast also warned against republican paramilitary involvement in community restorative justice schemes. These must be subject to police supervision, he said. "We cannot put the foxes in charge of chicken coops."
But he reserved his strongest criticism for the Police Ombudsman. He queried why she referred 170 cases that she had investigated to the North's public prosecution service last year when she recommended prosecution in only five of these.
Mrs O'Loan accused Mr Montgomery of expressing "concern for the difficulties of police officers under investigation, but no concern at all for members of the public under investigation".
She added: "More critically, he believes the person with responsibility for public complaints against the police should have far less time in office than police officers, far less powers than the police, and in particular, far less powers to look into incidents from the past than the police. What he is afraid of?"
