RUC threats
North Belfast Assembly member Gerry Kelly has accused the RUC of
``threatening a man's life'' in a bid to recruit him as an
informer.
Kelly said, ``Frank Pettigrew, who works on the Oldpark Road in
North Belfast, was approached by two RUC men at an RUC checkpoint
on the Crumlin Road as he drove to work last Tuesday morning, 17
November. One of the RUC men took him aside and told him it would
be in his interest to meet them on Thursday night. Pettigrew then
met the RUC at 7.30pm on Thursday. They took him to the
Ballysillan playing fields where he was threatened. They told him
that unless he spied on a number of named republicans he `could'
get a visit at work from the Red Hand Defenders.''
Pettigrew has now passed on all the details of the incident to a
solicitor. Kelly said, ``this incident further underlines, if it
was needed, the fact that the RUC is incapable of impartial
policing. It is not the behaviour of a policing service, it is
the action of a force that has not grasped the new political
reality.''
The RUC has denied the attempted approach.
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