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Councillor
Raymond Blaney questions the PSNI arrest and detention
of eight innocent people from the Castlewellan area.
The
Green Party assembly candidate in South Down said:
“Within days of the murder of a frail and elderly
County Down farmer in his own home by violent criminals
near Banbridge, a huge security operation was mounted
on Tuesday morning to arrest and detain eight innocent
people from the Castlewellan area, ages ranging from
their twenties to late sixties. A huge pre-dawn operation
involving hundreds of police and army saw local homes
raided and mothers and fathers removed from their
families who were left in a distressed state for the
following 36 hours. The eight people were repeatedly
questioned by teams of detectives in Antrim about
political matters they knew absolutely nothing about.
In the end, their releases came as suddenly as the
dawn raids but only after the security operation received
maximum publicity”.
Councillor
Raymond Blaney continued: “It must be emphasised
at the outset that none of these people had ever been
in any sort of trouble before and represented the
most unlikely of suspects”.
The
Green Party assembly candidate concluded: “The
obvious questions for the PSNI to answer is why was
this massive security operation mounted in the first
place? And what message does this give to the elderly
who are being attacked and robbed, and tragically
in the case of Ted O’Hare, murdered in their
own homes?”
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