SAOIRSE32

Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin urge early progress on all-Ireland sex offenders register

Published: 14 June, 2005

Commenting after a report today by the Sex Offender Strategic Management Committee claimed that up to 2000 sex offenders are loose in the six counties, Sinn Féin Fermanagh South Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew has called for early progress on the establishment of a single all-Ireland body to be responsible for holding standardised children protection information.

Ms Gildernew said:

“Previously when Bairbre de Brún and Martin McGuinness were Ministers they initiated a process that would allow for the setting up of an all-Ireland register to protect children, young people and vulnerable adults.

“Before the last elections Sinn Féin also published its Children’s Charter. It included the demand for the immediate establishment of a single all-Ireland body that would be responsible for holding standardised child protection information and supported by the Department of Heath in the north, the Department of Health and Children in the South and the two Departments of Education. This would work within a wider EU and global context.

“A number of recent high profile cases, including that involving convicted paedophile Vincent McKenna, where paedophiles have been convicted in one jurisdiction yet are not automatically included in any register within the other jurisdiction raise serious concerns. The activities of sexual abusers know no boundaries so it is vital that a key tool in protecting children and young people should not be confined by borders. This loophole presents clear dangers and needs to be closed.” ENDS

Belfast Telegraph

Brave Pearce on way home after op

By Nigel Gould
14 June 2005

Little Pearce Gilmore was preparing to fly home today to an Ulster street party like no other - just over two months after a life-saving brain operation in the US.

The remarkable Coleraine youngster begins his long journey back to Northern Ireland tonight with his dad Seamus - and will arrive home tomorrow morning to a rapturous welcome.

Pearce’s family are planning a massive street party for him that will be attended by friends and well-wishers from all over the area.

Before leaving New York - Pearce’s home since the beginning of April - Seamus told the Belfast Telegraph: “I’ve heard a big welcoming party is being planned for us and that will be fantastic.

“The trip to New York has really been worthwhile.

“Pearce is a different wee boy. He’s got his life back.

“His treatment is now over and he’s doing fantastically well.

“In about three months time he will have another scan just to see how things are going, so fingers crossed.

“Now, we are just looking forward to going home and seeing everyone again and thanking everyone for their support, thoughts and prayers.”

Belfast Telegraph readers helped raise more than £50,000 for a fund - now closed - to send Pearce to the US for his specialist brain operation.

Shortly after his life-saving surgery in April at the New York-based Montefiore Children’s Hospital, surgeon Dr Rick Abbot told how the 10-year-old had defied expectations by making remarkable progress.

At the time, Dr Abott said: “Things couldn’t be any better for him. We are very happy. He is extremely well.

“We have relieved the pressure so the brain can work better. He had problems with control on the right-hand side of his body. Now his co-ordination has improved and his speech is better.

“He has found his humour again and is playing about with his family and joking around. He is a different kid.”

BreakingNews.ie

I might have made bomber’s choice, says victim’s daughter

14/06/2005 - 14:34:57

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click thumbnail to view photo from The Forgiveness Project

The daughter of a Conservative MP killed by the Brighton bomb today said she may have made the same choices as her father’s IRA killer if she had lived his life.

Jo Berry was speaking at the launch of an exhibition on forgiveness featuring subjects from Northern Ireland, South Africa, Rwanda and Chechnya.

She was joined at the launch by Patrick Magee, the man who planted the device which claimed the lives of five people during the 1984 Conservative Party Conference.

Ms Berry is pictured alongside Magee, with whom she has been in contact since 1999 when he was released from multiple life sentences under the Good Friday Agreement.

On her experiences since the death of her father, Anthony Berry, she said: “Forgiveness is a word I find quite hard to use.

“It is about understanding that if I lived his (Magee’s) life I could have made the same choices. I feel that forgiveness means that I have to stop being angry and stop being hurt. I still get angry and I still get hurt.”

Ms Berry said the Forgiveness Project exhibition, which opened today at Queen’s University in Belfast, was a positive contribution to a complex problem.

She said: “We can learn from each other’s stories rather than an academic telling us stuff. This is a wonderful way of sharing our stories, of learning, growing and supporting.

“People can come here and identify with different parts of people’s stories or they can be inspired to take their own steps.”

Ms Berry would not be drawn on what she would like to see contained in the IRA’s anticipated statement on its future.

Magee posed for pictures at the launch but declined to give interviews.

However, in an interview which forms part of the photographic exhibition, he said: “Some day I will be able to forgive myself.

“Although I still stand by my actions, I will always carry the burden that I harmed other human beings.

“But I’m not seeking forgiveness. If Jo could just understand why someone like me could get involved in the armed struggle then something has been achieved.”

Magee continued: “Between Jo and I, the big issue is the use of violence. I can’t claim to have renounced violence, though I don’t believe I am a violent person and have spoken out against it.

“I am 100% in favour of the peace process, but I am not a pacifist and I could never say to future generations, anywhere in the world, who felt themselves oppressed, ‘Take it, just lie down and take it’.”

The F Word exhibition, which is the brainchild of journalist Marina Cantacuzino, also features ex-loyalist paramilitary Alistair Little and Anne Gallagher, a former nurse at the Royal Victoria Hospital, who treated victims from both sides of the sectarian divide during the Troubles.

It runs at the university’s Institute of Governance until Friday.

BBC

Police search at community centre

A community centre in east Belfast has been searched in a police investigation into loyalist money laundering.

Detectives carried out the operation at the Gae Lairn community centre on the Newtownards Road on Tuesday.

Computers, financial records and bundles of documents were seized from the premises.

Police confirmed that officers moved into the centre. A spokesman said: “The search operation was in relation to serious crime.”

BreakingNews.ie

Complaints Board backs independent Garda Ombudsman plan

14/06/2005 - 11:19:46

The Garda Complaints Board has expressed support for the Government’s plans to establish an independent Garda Ombudsman.

The proposed body would replace the current controversial system whereby gardaí investigate complaints against themselves.

In its annual report for 2004, the Complaints Board said it would support a move to create a three-member Ombudsman Commission rather than a single-person Ombudsman, a system used in the North.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell has welcomed the board’s comments and said he also favoured an independent commission that would include more than one member.

“It’s suggested that somehow the Nuala O’Loan model [in the North] is the international norm,” he said. “It’s not.

“If you look across the world, you’ll find multi-member bodies rather than single-member bodies are the norm internationally.”

Daily Ireland

Irish government meets residents over parades

by Ciarán Barnes c.barnes@dailyireland.com

Residents of an east Belfast estate at the centre of a row over an illegal loyalist parade have met the Irish government to voice their concerns about the climax to the marching season.

The weekend meeting between Short Strand residents and members of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Secretariat came on the same day it was revealed that every Orange Order march planned for east Belfast on July 12 will be illegal.
The unlicensed parades, along with three others scheduled for the east of the city on July 1, will all pass by the Short Strand area.
Around a dozen loyalist marches pass the tiny nationalist enclave every year.
Previous parades have resulted in sectarian violence, with Catholic homes being attacked and rioting erupting between rival factions.
Short Strand residents are keen to avoid a repeat of such events.
However, they remain fearful that next month’s illegal marches could spark fresh violence.
A spokesman for the residents said: “We stressed to the Irish government the detrimental effect these parades will have on intercommunity relationships in east Belfast.
“It is important that the Irish government recognise our concerns before the marches take place.
“There is a genuine fear in our community that we could be targeted if a stand-off situation occurs.”
The east Belfast Orangemen’s July marches were declared illegal after organisers failed to fill in parading application forms properly.
This is a deliberate tactic adopted by the Orange Order.
It prevents any of its members being arrested should there be a breach of Parades Commission guidelines at marches. Previously, Orangemen would put the names of the district masters and secretaries on parading application forms.
This led to leading Orangemen Raymond Spiers and Harry Whiteside being questioned under caution last summer after an alleged breach of Parades Commission guidelines at an east Belfast march.
The pair’s names had been given on the parading application form.
By putting no names on the application forms, the Orange Order can now effectively prevent the PSNI from making any arrests.
Up to 20,000 loyalists are expected to attend the July 1 and 12 east Belfast Orange Order parades.
The Parades Commission has ruled that several previous Orange marches in the area were illegal.
However, the PSNI never prevented any of the marches from taking place.

RTE

Court restrains Gama report publication

14 June 2005 11:43

The High Court has refused to allow publication of a report by the Labour Inspectorate into allegations of breaches of employment legalisation by the Turkish subsidiary, Gama Construction Ireland.

Mrs Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan granted an injunction to Gama restraining publication on the grounds that the inspector went beyond his statutory powers in preparing the report.

She said that as a result the Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment was not entitled to circulate or publish the report.
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She said the there was no breach of fair procedure in the manner in which the investigation was conducted provided the use of the results was confined to its permitted statutory purposes under the relevant employment act.

BBC

Man arrested in Lisa murder probe

Lisa Dorrian’s body has never been found

A man has been arrested by police investigating the murder of Bangor woman Lisa Dorrian.

The 25-year-old disappeared after a party at a caravan site in Ballyhalbert in County Down on 28 February.

Loyalist paramilitaries have been blamed for her killing. Her body has never been found despite extensive air, land, and sea searches.

Police said an 18-year-old man had been arrested in the Greater Belfast area on Tuesday morning.

On Sunday, her family marked her 26th birthday by releasing 26 white balloons over the seafront in Bangor.

The family said they were no closer to finding out what happened to her.

They have offered a £10,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of Lisa’s body.

Three men have already questioned about the killing but were later released.

The police are looking at the possible involvement of members of the Loyalist Volunteer Force.

BBC

Best held over child ’sex assault’

Best was arrested on 9 June

Football legend George Best has been arrested and bailed on suspicion of indecently assaulting a young girl.

The former Manchester United and Northern Ireland star, 59, is alleged to have attacked the girl, who is aged under 13, last month in Surrey.

A spokeswoman for Surrey Police said: “We have received an allegation of indecent assault against a 59-year-old man who was arrested on 9 June.”

Best was also held on that date over an allegation he assaulted a woman.

The spokeswoman added the force was not prepared to discuss any further details of the investigation.

Best was arrested on suspicion of assault occasioning actual bodily harm against a 34-year-old woman.

The attack is alleged to have happened in Ewell, Surrey.

It has now emerged he was also questioned about the indecent assault claim.

Speaking on 9 June, Best’s agent Phil Hughes said he “categorically” denied attacking the woman.

Mr Hughes was not available to respond to the latest allegation.

Best was questioned for nine hours at Staines police station before being freed on police bail.

He is due to return to a police station in Surrey for further questioning on 6 July.