Nuala O'Loan, Baroness O'Loan

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Nuala O'Loan the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland

Nuala O'Loan was the first Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland between 1999 and 2007.

Background

Nuala O'Loan was born and educated in England, the daughter of a Dubliner. She became a law lecturer in Northern Ireland. In 1977 she survived an IRA bombing at Ulster Polytechnic when pregnant although she lost her baby.

She is married to Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) North Antrim MLA Declan O'Loan and has five sons. One of her sons, Damien, was badly beaten up in the Oldpark area of north Belfast. The attack, in June 2006, required him to receive hospital treatment. A motive for the attack is yet to be established.

She is a voluntary marriage counsellor, working particularly to prepare young people from different religions who are getting married.

Previous career

Nuala O'Loan is a qualified solicitor and was a law lecturer at the Ulster Polytechnic and University of Ulster from 1974 to 1992. She was then a Senior Lecturer holding the Jean Monnet Chair in European Law at the University of Ulster from 1992 until her appointment as Ombudsman.

She has also been:

• Chairman of the Northern Ireland Consumer Committee for Electricity;
• A Member of the Police Authority;
  • Vice-Chair of the Police Authority's Community Relation Committee;
• A Member of the Northern Health and Social Services Board;
  • Convenor for Complaints for the Northern Health and Social Services Board;
• A Member of the General Consumer Council, and Convenor of the Transport and Energy Group of that Council; and
• A Legal expert member of the European Commission's Consumers Consultative Council.

For seven years, Nuala O'Loan was also a Lay visitor to police stations. This meant that she could speak to people held in the cells, at any time of the day or night.

Career as Ombudsman

Nuala O'Loan was appointed by the Government of the United Kingdom to the post of Police Ombudsman designate in 1999. The Ombudsman's Office was created by the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 1998. This reform came into force some two weeks prior to the Belfast Agreement and the office's existence and practice has been the subject of continued controversy since.

In August 2001, she was charged with looking into police handling of the Omagh bombing in 1998. This terrorist attack left 31 dead including two unborn children. Her report found that the Royal Ulster Constabulary had prior knowledge of some form of attack planned for that area and it questioned the leadership of Northern Ireland's then Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan.

Speaking at a subsequent news conference, Sir Ronnie said he considered the report to represent neither a "fair, thorough or rigorous investigation". He said he was considering legal action on a "personal and organisational basis" [no legal action was taken]. He further added: "I consider it to be a report of an erroneous conclusion reached in advance and then a desperate attempt to find anything that might happen to fit in with that, and a determination to exclude anything which does not fit that erroneous conclusion". Speaking emotionally, Sir Ronnie said that if he believed the allegations in the report had been true "I would not only resign, I would publicly commit suicide."

She has attracted both praise and criticism for her robust activity in investigating alleged abuses by officers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). She has also served as a trusted intermediary in controversial cases involving alleged criminal activity by Irish Republicans. This role came about because many Republicans did not yet recognize the PSNI as a legitimate and unbiased police service, and so refused to co-operate in its investigations. This role has largely disappeared as Sinn Féin have now called upon republicans to assist the PSNI.

A UK House of Commons Committee reported on the Police Ombudsman in 2005 and praised O'Loan, recommending that she be given wider powers. The same committee acknowledged that the Office was not seen as impartial by the PSNI and its officers and urged that these concerns be addressed.

In December 2006, an independent survey by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency found that Protestants and Catholics are equally supportive of the Police Ombudsman. More than four out of five people questioned from both communities also believed that police officers and complainants would be treated fairly. In addition, a survey of police officers investigated by the Police Ombudsman's Office, suggests 85% believe they have been treated fairly by the office.

On June 26 2007 former RCMP Assistant Commissioner Al Hutchinson was announced as the successor to O'Loan as Police Ombudsman, and he took up the office on 5 November 2007.

Controversy

Former Ulster Unionist MP Ken Maginnis said, in relation to her handling of the Omagh Bomb Inquiry, that it was as though she had walked through "police interests and community interests like a suicide bomber". Former Secretary of State Peter Mandelson said she has displayed a "certain lack of experience and possibly gullibility" in relation to the same affair.

During the summer of 2006 her youngest son Kieran, 18, was accused of hurling sectarian abuse at the police and received a caution.

In October 2006 she was involved in a public row with Ian Paisley Jr. Both she and Mr. Paisley later admitted that the row was "unprofessional and undignified". The incident happened in a Belfast coffee shop when Mr Paisley was approached by Mrs O'Loan. She voiced her concerns on alleged comments made by Mr Paisley about her children. Her marriage to a nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) councillor has, in the past, caused Mr. Paisley to question her ability to remain independent. On her retirement, a farewell party was organised, to which all political parties were invited. No representatives from the Ulster Unionist Party, Democratic Unionist Party or Sinn Fein attended.

Awards

In 2003, the Annual Conference of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (a US organization) presented O'Loan with an award for her contribution to police accountability.

Operation Ballast investigation into collusion

On January 22 2007 she published the results of Operation Ballast, an investigation into collusion between the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Ulster Volunteer Force in relation to the murder of Raymond McCord Junior in 1997. Several crimes committed by informants working for Special Branch were investigated, including the murders of:

• Raymond McCord, Junior
• Peter McTasney
• Sharon McKenna
• Sean McParland
• Gary Convie and Eamon Fox
• Gerard Brady
• John Harbinson

as well as a bomb attack on Sinn Féin offices in Monaghan, an attack on a bar in Portadown, Special Branch halting searches for Loyalist weapons and drug dealing.

Most of the allegations concern an unnamed figure called "Informant 1", who acted as a Special Branch informant.

External links

• www.policeombudsman.org
• Report on Police Ombudsman by House of Commons Committee 2005
• BBC News report on Commons Committee accessed 29 June 2006
• Interview on the BBC Radio 4 from 2002
• BBC News on Operation Ballast investigation
• Public statement on Operation Ballast from the Police Ombudsmans website