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The Evidence of Things Not SeenSource: Fortnight, No. 155 (Oct. 14 - 27, 1977), p. 3Published by: Fortnight Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25546411 .

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14-27 October, 1977/3

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"The Evidence of Things Not Seen" On October 5, 1968, the behaviour of the RUC set in motion a train of events which has not yet come to a halt.

Exactly nine years and one day after the happenings in

Derry's Duke Street, the SDLP has felt constrained to make a statement condemning current police bahaviour and in particular what goes on in the RUC interrogation centre at Castlereagh. Essentially the SDLP allegation is that in Castlereagh some suspects are subjected to

physical assault in order to secure information from them and that the Chief Constable, Kenneth Newman,

must have knowledge of this since he has access to police surgeons' reports which may be expected to contain details of the suspects' physical condition.

Mr Newman's response to these claims has been to restate what has now become the standard RUC case. RUC personnel are, subject to the law, a large number of

high level RUC officers are committed full time to

investigating complaints against RUC personnel; all

complaints of criminal behaviour are passed on to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and it is the DPP who decides whether a case should be brought into court. Mr Newman is clearly satisfied that such a

procedure not only guarantees the rights of a suspect, but also indicates that the allegations are unfounded.

The following figures suggest the scope of the problem. In 1976,1110 cases were referred to the DPP and in the event one RUC man has been charged with assault. So far this year 215 complaints have been made relating to RUC activities in Castlereagh and to date not one police man has been charged with assault. Clearly, either the

reports of police brutality are mischievous and malicious, designed to destroy the credibility of the RUC or else the

present procedures are not geared to establishing the facts. If RUC credibility was already securely established

it might be proper to judge that the former was the case

and dismiss the SDLP claims merely as evidence of their naive credulity. Against this there are, however, circumstances which require further clarification. There

is the testimony of both lawyers and doctors whose

professional judgement leads them to afford some

credence to the allegations. The fact that judges on

occasion have thrown out statements alleged to have

been secured by force indicates that there has been room

for doubt about some ofthe interrogation methods. The

medical evidence in the notorious Peter McKenna case in

Cookstown clearly established he had been badly beaten in the RUC barracks, although it was not possible to

establish who had been responsible. Finally, it is surely not invalid to infer that the majority of accused who are

convicted in the courts on the strength of their own state

ments must have been subject to fairly strong pressure to

induce them to incriminate themselves. In making these comments we are weighing proba

bilities. The only eye witnesses in the interrogation room are the investigating officers and the suspect. The rest is

circumstantial evidence and the DPP will hardly take cases to court solely on the strength of circumstantial evidence.

In that case it is necessary to have a proper machinery to establish the facts. The recently created police com

plaints board has no role to play here as it cannot consider complaints which could entail criminal

prosecutions. There is however a Police Authority which was set up following the Hunt Report. The Report recommended that "the authority should have a

particular duty to keep itself informed as to the manner in which complaints against the police are dealt with". It is now time for the Authority to stir itself and

acknowledge that the present procedures are inadequate. Surely it is ironic that on the very day that Kenneth Newman was attempting to rebut the SDLP allegations by a blank denial, the Minister for Justice in the

Republic was publicly acknowledging that the issue of the credibility ofthe Gardai was sufficiently important to

warrant the appointment of a special commission. Should the Police Authority not be equally concerned about the credibility ofthe RUC?

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EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Michael McKeown, Robert Johnstone,

Douglas Marshall

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Special American Issue Who are the Irish-Americans?.4 An American View of Ulster..6 American Sensibilities.7

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