BLOODY SUNDAY INQUIRY: Twenty serving or former Northern Ireland police officers have been granted the right to be screened from the public while giving evidence to the inquiry next week, although a number of their colleagues have not sought such screening.
The tribunal conducting the inquiry ruled yesterday that an application by the 20 officers should be granted, and accordingly they will be visible only to the judges and legal representatives while they testify.
The chairman, Lord Saville, said the tribunal accepted that the applicants had reasonable and genuine fears for their safety.
He commented that these officers, unlike the soldiers who will testify, do not have the protection of anonymity - they are publicly named individuals.
Unlike the soldiers, they live in Northern Ireland where some are still serving police officers. He pointed out that hundreds of their colleagues had died from terrorist activity over the last 30 years.
Lord Saville said: "Thankfully the terrorist threat at present appears to be reduced from that which existed before, but that it still exists cannot be denied . . . and the future, of course, is unknown." He said the officers' fears stemmed not so much from the evidence they would give about Bloody Sunday, but from the opportunity that would be afforded to dissident groups to identify them more closely if they were not screened.
The chairman expressed regret that the applications were made late - they were submitted only after the first police witness, a Special Branch officer, gave evidence from behind screens last Monday. The inquiry had to adjourn at that point, and its timetable was dislocated, the judge pointed out.
Earlier yesterday, the tribunal was told by its counsel, Mr Christopher Clarke QC, that, aside from the 20, four police witnesses had not been contactable since Monday, to ascertain their intentions. Five others had indicted that they are not seeking screening.
Mr Clarke also pointed out that three RUC officers had given evidence unscreened and in their own names to the 1972 Widgery Inquiry. One of these, Mr John Montgomery, is among the 20 applicants who have been granted screening at this inquiry. Three other officers gave evidence to Widgery under ciphers.
Making the application on behalf of the 20 officers, Mr Nicholas Hanna QC, said they believed that simply by being police witnesses at this inquiry they were at increased risk. Recent security assessments made it clear that the targeting of serving and former police officers was continuing. Moreover, if the security situation worsened and the terrorist threat to officers increased, the applicants' identities would be fully unprotected if their physical appearance had been disclosed.
Mr Hanna said the officers, who lived in Northern Ireland, faced a different type of threat to that facing the soldiers. Mr Seamus Treacy QC, for a number of victims' families, said they did not accept that the officers had genuine or reasonable fears, or that this was a bona-fide application. Mr Michael Mansfield QC, for other families, said there was no threat to the officers - there was no evidence that police witnesses attending hearings had been subjected to threat or assault on any occasion over the course of 30 years.
"We are concerned on behalf of the families as to whether this is creeping paralysis," said Mr Mansfield, adding that it was feared that, in the future, the soldiers too might apply for screening, even though the venue for their testimony had been changed.
The tribunal was provided with threat assessments carried out in recent weeks by the PSNI, which said that a general threat existed to any police witness whose personal details, including appearance, might be disclosed.
The inquiry adjourned until Monday.