A PSNI officer who accepted a formal reprimand after Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly was carried on the bonnet of his Land Rover has been used as a "political pawn", the Police Federation has claimed. Mr Kelly was filmed clinging to the front of the police vehicle in the Carrick Hill area of north Belfast in June last year, during trouble which broke out after the Tour of the North parade. He had been attempting to speak to police about the arrest of a young man moments earlier. Last month Mr Kelly revealed that he received an "informed warning" for his actions. The Irish News reported at the time that the police officer driving the Land Rover would receive the same sanction. The officer has now received an informed warning for driving without due care and attention. The warning is not a conviction but appears on a person's criminal record for 12 months. Refusing to accept the warning can lead to a prosecution. Police Federation chairman Terry Spence last night described the punishment as "ill judged and unjustified". However, Mr Spence said he accepted and understood the officer's decision to accept the warning. "The glare of publicity, and the burden it placed on his family, lay behind the officer's reluctant decision to accept the informed warning," he said. "Mr Kelly has accepted the warning, which in our view makes the decision of the PPS [Public Prosecution Service] to mete out the same sanction all the more incomprehensible. "Put simply, the officer was merely doing his duty, and the PFNI is saddened over the way he has been used as a political pawn in this incident." DUP MP Nigel Dodds also claimed the officer was handed a warning for "simply doing his job". "When the issue first arose the officer was not even aware the warning had been issued until it was reported in the press," he said. "There was obviously a huge pressure on the officer to accept this warning which could have further implications for his career. "It is bizarre and quite disgraceful that the victim of this obstruction has been handed the same penalty as the person guilty of carrying it out."
