Drumcree protest: first files to prosecutors within days as 65 people are suspected

Investigation timeline

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) says case files on people suspected of criminal offences during the Drumcree protest will go to the Public Prosecution Service within days. Chief Constable Jon Boutcher told the Policing Board that 65 people had been identified as suspects and 23 had been interviewed as of Thursday. The protest blocked Garvaghy Road in Portadown on Sunday, 27 September, the day the Orange Order parade was due to take place. In September the Parades Commission allowed the parade to go down the mainly nationalist road for the first time in almost 30 years, which led to a two-week stand-off at the site.

Who was interviewed

The 23 people interviewed are known to include First Minister Michelle O'Neill and other senior Sinn Fein politicians, among them party president Mary Lou McDonald. Stormont Assembly members Gerry Kelly and Deirdre Hargey, who also sit on the Policing Board, are among those interviewed. The politicians have defended their presence on the road, with O'Neill saying it was 'always the right thing to do to stand on the Garvaghy Road'. Boutcher has said he cannot yet say whether 65 will be the final number of suspects.

Evidence and cost

A team of 30 officers is working through more than 70 hours of recorded material from the day of the protest. Boutcher rejected the claim that the investigation is taking too long and said it is moving quickly.

“I refute entirely that this is taking very long.”

Policing the two-week stand-off cost £5.5 million, which Boutcher said has worsened the PSNI's already difficult budget position. The chart below sets the number of suspects against the number interviewed.

Suspects identified65

Interviewed23

Suspects identified

65

Interviewed

23

Data from the article text

Political fallout

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly of the DUP has stopped joint engagements with Michelle O'Neill and is blocking O'Neill from attending engagements in an official capacity on her own. Carla Lockhart, MP for Upper Bann, which includes Portadown, has quit the DUP after accusing the party of not going far enough in its response to O'Neill being under police investigation. Lockhart wanted Little-Pengelly removed from her role entirely, a move that would automatically have forced O'Neill out of office as First Minister.

The decision to halt the parade

Boutcher challenged a 'misinterpretation' that the feelings of the Provisional IRA were a factor in the PSNI halting the parade in Portadown, insisting that no one dictates how his officers make decisions. He pointed to a High Court ruling in October that the Northern Ireland Secretary, Chris Bryant, had acted lawfully when he overturned the Parades Commission decision and banned the procession. Boutcher said the ruling recognised that all lawful and proportionate options to facilitate the procession had been exhausted, and that a forceful public order response would have carried an unacceptable risk of serious injury and wider harm across Northern Ireland.