PSNI chief defends handling of spy scandal

Sir Hugh Orde - Meeting on Stormont spy affair

The PSNI Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Orde, has defended his force's handling of the Stormont spy scandal. 

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster, Sir Hugh said police searches at Stormont three years ago did not bring the Northern Ireland executive down, but that stolen documents recovered in west Belfast in October caused the assembly's suspension. 

He said these included transcripts of conversations between the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the US President, George W Bush. 

The subject is expected to be discussed at a special meeting of the North's Policing Board's Corporate Policy Committee today. 

The board's Chairman, Professor Sir Desmond Rea, is expected to meet Sir Hugh today following a meeting with the Northern Secretary, Peter Hain, last night.

The Sinn Féin Assembly member Gerry Kelly has accused the Chief Constable of being deliberately misleading in his comments.

Mr Kelly said that in a number of media interviews Hugh Orde had 'attempted to justify the Special Branch operation which led to the collapse of the democratically elected institutions.

'His primary defence appears to be the allegation that the PSNI recovered documents from a house in West Belfast,’ he said.

But Mr Kelly says Hugh Orde failed to mention that the documents recovered were recovered from the home of Denis Donaldson.

'Denis Donaldson was at the heart of a British spy ring and a securocrat conspiracy which brought down the elected government.

'It is clear that the British State agencies who mounted this entire operation knew that there was no value other than political theatre to raid the Sinn Féin offices in Stormont,' he added.