Hilary Benn urged to call public inquiry after police surveillance revelations

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn has been urged to call a public inquiry after revelations around unlawful police surveillance of journalists and lawyers.

Journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney were speaking after a report revealed police in the region unlawfully used covert powers to attempt to uncover eight journalists’ sources.

The McCullough Review into surveillance practices in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) also found that attempts were made on 21 occasions to identify reporters’ sources before 2015, and there were two instances of directed surveillance against an unnamed lawyer without proper authorisation.

Angus McCullough KC was commissioned by the PSNI to examine the issue after a tribunal last year ruled an undercover police operation to try to unmask Mr McCaffrey and Mr Birnie’s sources was unlawful.

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) quashed a decision by former PSNI chief constable Sir George Hamilton to approve a directed surveillance authorisation (DSA) in an investigation into the leaking of a confidential document that appeared in a documentary made by the pair about a Troubles massacre.

The tribunal also looked at allegations that the PSNI and the Metropolitan Police in London unlawfully accessed Mr McCaffrey’s phone data in unrelated operations in 2012 and 2013.

The two forces conceded that those operations were unlawful.

Speaking at a press conference in Belfast on Wednesday, both men said a public inquiry is needed to reveal the extent of surveillance.

“We have no faith that the PSNI are capable of following the right road, we believe that only a public inquiry will force the PSNI to do the right thing,” Mr McCaffrey said.

“It’s not about us, it’s about public confidence, what has happened over the past eight years with our case, with Vincent Kearney, Chris Moore, the confidence in policing has been destroyed, and it’s not our fault. It’s the fault of the PSNI and whoever was allowing this to happen within the PSNI.

“We need to know who is pulling the strings.”

He added: “There is one man who can solve this. There is one man who can initiate a public inquiry, and that is Hilary Benn, and if he is really the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and he cares for confidence in policing and the public, he will initiate a public inquiry because this can’t be allowed to go on.”

Mr Birney said he wanted to remember the families of the six people killed in Loughinisland in an attack by loyalist paramilitaries, amid claims of security forces collusion, saying he and Mr McCaffrey spent years searching for truth and justice for them.

“We remain committed to telling the truth about what happened in Loughinisland, and we will also continue to raise the alarm about press freedom in Northern Ireland,” he added.

“We welcome the work of Angus McCullough, we appreciate it, and we now think it is a very important stepping stone, but only a stepping stone to a full public ventilation of the facts around spying on journalists.”

Solicitor John Finucane, who acts for Mr McCaffrey, said there has been “some aspect of a light being shone on what the PSNI were up to along with other police agencies”.

He said the actions around journalists were “well ventilated” on Wednesday, but there is also concern around surveillance of lawyers.

“That culture, for me, is something that needs addressed,” he said.

“All of this information has had to be dragged out… what we need to see now is the PSNI, and nobody else, taking credible action to repair the damage that they have caused themselves.”

Solicitor Niall Murphy, who acts for Mr Birney, said: “This is not normal, it is not normal legal process to conduct wholesale widespread and systemic surveillance of journalists and lawyers.

“Surveillance of the scale which is reported by today’s report can never be normal, and would not be accepted in any of the capital cities, Dublin or in London.”