Northern Ireland police chief faces ouster amid uproar over disciplining officers

(CN) — The head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Simon Byrne, fought for his job Friday as the police union planned to hold a vote of no confidence after a spate of controversies, including a High Court ruling that found he tried to appease Irish nationalist party Sinn Féin.

Tuesday’s High Court decision triggered the crisis in finding two police officers were improperly disciplined for the contentious arrest of a survivor of a unionist paramilitary attack during a 2021 memorial service for other victims.

The High Court ruling centers around the arrest of Mark Sykes in 2021, while he was taking part in an annual commemoration of the Sean Graham bookmakers’ killings.

In 1992, pro-British unionist paramilitaries opened fire in a bookmakers in an Irish republican area of Belfast, killing five and injuring a further nine Catholic bystanders, including Sykes. A subsequent investigation found that the perpetrators of the attack had been in collusion with Northern Ireland’s police force at the time, the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Sykes, who was shot repeatedly during the 1992 attack, admitted swearing at police officers during the 2021 memorial, but his arrest sparked a furious backlash from Northern Ireland’s Irish nationalist community.

The ruling found that the disciplinary action was illegal since Chief Constable Byrne acted on his belief that Sinn Féin would withdraw its support for the police service if no action was taken. The party has strongly denied making such a threat.

The leader of Northern Ireland’s Police Federation said he was “disgusted, disillusioned and extremely angry” with Byrne’s leadership.

Byrne prompted fury among his rank-and-file officers for saying he would appeal the ruling after a seven-hour emergency meeting Thursday with the policing board. Byrne’s refusal to resign and decision to appeal is said to have “infuriated and antagonized” his officers, many of whom perceive the appeal as an attempt to buy himself more time in the job.

Michelle O’Neill, vice president of Irish nationalist party Sinn Féin, described the arrest at the time as unacceptable and having undermined community confidence in policing.

“The man was arrested at an event to commemorate the 29th anniversary of the massacre in which five people, including a child, were killed by loyalist gunmen, using weapons brought into Ireland by a British agent,” said O’Neill.

She added that the arrest “adds insult to injury to the families of the victims who have been waiting almost three decades for truth about the deaths of their loved ones.”

The officers involved were subsequently disciplined for their decision to arrest Sykes.

Byrne’s treatment of the officers drew condemnation from across Northern Ireland’s unionist community. Describing the debacle as “a car crash of policing,” Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie called for both Byrne and Deputy Chief Constable Mark Hamilton to resign.

The position was echoed by the Democratic Unionist Party’s Trevor Clarke.

“Our party position is that he was given chances to prove himself," Clarke said, “but unfortunately the court judgment has left him in a position I don’t think is retrievable. I would have thought that the chief constable would have the sense to read the room.”

Highlighting the extent to which Byrne has disillusioned half of Northern Ireland’s sectarian divide — precisely the outcome that the High Court decided he was trying to avoid — Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim McAllister said that the police chief was focused on “the politics of keeping Sinn Féin happy at all costs.”

Byrne is also handling the fallout from another major scandal within the force. In early August the police service accidentally published the names and work details of all police staff in response to a freedom of information request, with details remaining publicly available for almost three hours.

The widespread data breach has compromised the safety of the service’s staff, given Northern Ireland’s long history of violent reprisals against police officers. Indeedthe threat is not just historic. In February, off-duty police officer John Caldwell was shot by gunmen suspected to have links to the New Irish Republican Army — a splinter group committed to securing Irish reunification through violent means.

The data release, which was chalked up to “human error” by the police service, leaves 10,000 staff members vulnerable to attacks and potentially undermines counter-terrorism activities.

At a hastily convened news conference following the data release, Byrne said, “We are now confident that the workforce dataset is in the hands of dissident republicans and it is therefore a planning assumption that they will use this list to generate fear and uncertainty, as well as intimidating or targeting officers and staff.”

The combined effect of the data release and the High Court ruling may make Byrne’s position untenable. The police chief is an Englishman who rose up the ranks of London’s Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police, before becoming chief constable in the English county of Cheshire. He has frequently been accused of failing to grasp the nuances of Northern Ireland’s complicated and often sectarian politics since taking on the territory’s top job in 2019.

A poll released before the High Court verdict last week found that only 16% of Northern Ireland’s public have confidence in Byrne, compared to 60% who said they did not.