Northern Ireland

PSNI probe after blank interview tapes sent to Loughinisland journalists

Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey at the High Court in Belfast. Picture by Hugh Russell.
Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey at the High Court in Belfast. Picture by Hugh Russell. Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey at the High Court in Belfast. Picture by Hugh Russell.

THE PSNI is investigating after it presented blank tapes to journalists Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey in response to a High Court order to provide recordings of the pair’s police interviews.

The interviews date back to 2018 when the journalists were arrested in the wake of their documentary on the Loughinisland massacre.

A court later found the search warrants used by police to raid the journalists' home and their offices had been "inappropriate”.

In November 2020, the PSNI agreed to pay substantial damages to Mr Birney and Mr McCaffrey and delete material it seized.

Police also agreed in the High Court to provide the recordings of officers from the PSNI and Durham Constabulary, interviewing the two journalists at Musgrave Street Police Station in August 2018.

But The Detail website revealed that apart from opening remarks by detectives, the interview tapes sent to legal representatives last week were blank.

In a statement to The Detail, the PSNI said: “The reason why material did not transfer onto the tapes provided and why this was not identified in advance, are being investigated.

“The provision of tapes without recorded content was an error and certainly not intentional.”

While he welcomed the PSNI probe, Mr Birney questioned the “pre-determination that this was not intentional” prior to the outcome of the investigation.

“These tapes just didn’t erase themselves,” he told The Detail

“There is very damning material on those tapes and the initial decision to release them blank only raises further questions about the senior management within the PSNI and their attitude towards the courts and, indeed, their commitments to truth and transparency.”