Barry McElduff questioned by PSNI over Kingsmill video

Evidence file to be prepared for Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service

Barry McElduff: voluntarily attended the interview about the incident with officers in Omagh. Photograph: PA
Barry McElduff: voluntarily attended the interview about the incident with officers in Omagh. Photograph: PA

Police have interviewed a former Sinn Féin MP who quit after posing with a Kingsmill-branded loaf on his head on the anniversary of the Kingsmill massacre.

Ex-West Tyrone representative Barry McElduff voluntarily attended the interview about the incident with officers in Omagh.

Det Chief Superintendent Tim Mairs said an evidence file would be passed to Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service for assessment.

Mr McElduff resigned in January, more than a week after the online furore first erupted.

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Impeded efforts

He had already been suspended by his party for three months. Mr McElduff said staying in the job would have impeded efforts to forge reconciliation in Northern Ireland.

He has continued to insist that he had not meant the video as a reference to the sectarian murders of 10 Protestant workmen by republican paramilitaries near the south Armagh village of Kingsmill in 1976.

However, he acknowledged the post had caused unintentional hurt to the Kingsmill families.

West Tyrone is a very safe Sinn Féin seat and the party will likely hold on to it at an upcoming byelection.