PSNI, IMC admit “mistakes”

The PSNI police has apologised for providing false information on the death of Michael O’Hare, which was described as sectarian in the report of the International Monitoring Commission earlier this year.

The IMC have also acknowledged that their first report contained wrong information regarding the murder, it has emerged.

Michael O’Hare was killed in a house fire in Bangor in March last year.

In April this year Mr O’Hare surprisingly appeared in the IMC’s report as a victim of paramilitary activity.

The IMC initially refused to comment amid mounting demands for answers as to why Mr O’Hare’s name appear in its first dossier. It maintained this front despite the fact that it was acknowledged that man who pleaded guilty to the killing had no paramilitary links.

The IMC, seen by nationalists as a simple front for the British government and its forces, was again challenged over its report.

Sinn Féin Assembly member Gerry Kelly said that at the time the IMC Report was published Sinn Féin denounced its contents and exposed a series of inaccurate sections. Other political parties accepted it as gospel. Now the PSNI and IMC have themselves acknowledged the report was based on inaccurate information.

“The fact is the IMC has no credibility and this news further exposes this unrepresentative British securocrat tool. Those who jumped up and down and were quick to try and use the shoddy IMC Report as a basis to attack Sinn Féin should reflect long and hard on their reaction given the gradual exposure of the report as lies.

“The IMC has no positive role to play. It operates outside the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and it is little more than a mechanism to be used to exclude the largest nationalist party, Sinn Féin, from the process.”

Urgent Appeal