Under-fire Northern Ireland Human Rights chief Mr Brice Dickson tonight concededhe blundered over his handling of the Holy Cross School blockade.
The embattled commissioner broke his silence in a bid to end controversy thathas raged since a joint Parliamentary committee report provoked a wave ofcriticism.
Even though the Human Rights Commission agreed to fund a legal case againsthow loyalist protests at the north Belfast Catholic Primary School in September2001 were policed, Mr Dickson privately held serious reservations.
In correspondence with former chief constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan he backedhis view that police had not breached any human rights, MPs and peers weretold.
Outraged solicitors for an unnamed Holy Cross parent who mounted the judicialreview action claimed this was a breach of trust while SDLP leader Mr Mark Durkaninsisted answers were needed if confidence was to be restored.
Mr Dickson responded tonight by insisting his reservations about the merits ofthe case were shared by three other commissioners.
He said: "I did what I felt was right at the time in view of the deepdivisions which had surfaced within the Commission.
"Looking back on the matter a year and a half later, I might have dealt withthose divisions differently."
The Joint Commons and Lords Committee on Human Rights report said his handlingof the Holy Cross case raised questions about the Commission's independence.
But Mr Dickson stressed the correspondence at the centre of document had notinfluenced the Commission's support for the Holy Cross case or its ultimateoutcome.
"The Commission has continued to finance the case despite its limitedresources for casework," he said.
"Procedures are now in place within the Commission to ensure that strongdifferences of opinion between Commissioners are more easily accommodated."
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission was one of the key institutionsto emerge from the Belfast Agreement.
PA