McDaid killing: Shadow of Robert Hamill murder looms ever larger with explosive new claims
The Sunday World’s front page today carries allegations that a serving PSNI officer goaded loyalists about the presence of Irish Tricolours in the nationalist Heights area of Coleraine ahead of the violent loyalist attack which killed one catholic man, Kevin McDaid, and has left another fighting for his life.
The alleged text message read: THE TRICOLOURS ARE STILL UP IN THE TOWN- ARE YIS REAL MEN OR WHAT?
The paper further alleges that PSNI officers stood chatting with loyalists in the Scotts Bar area prior to the attack, with some PSNI officers goading the loyalists about the presence of tricolours.
Prior to these revelations, the PSNI were already in the dock for their handling of this killing. These new claims will not only serve to heap more pressure on the PSNI, it will also strengthen the dissident republican narrative that the PSNI remain a deeply partisan, sectarian force and immediately recall the actions of RUC officers during and in the aftermath of the murder of Robert Hamill in Portadown.
In this regard, the role of nationalist politicians in the coming period will be crucial. It will be extremely important for them to provide strong leadership in holding the PSNI to account at the highest level for the persistence of what appears to be a pervasive sectarian mentality within the police service at a local level within Coleraine.
I have already listed a number of questions which must be addressed by the Police Ombudsman in relation to this killing in a previous thread. Naturally, with these allegations there are a number of new questions which instantly arise regarding the name and rank of the PSNI officer concerned, but also his role in events on the day. Furthermore, the revelations also confirm suspicions raised about why the PSNI did not simply inform loyalists threatening violence on a predominantly nationalist community due to the presence of a couple of flags that they would not be permitted to invade the area and inflict such violence and could be arrested for making threats with such implications: clearly, a number of the PSNI officers shared the same objective as the murderous loyalists.
