First files in Drumcree protest investigation to be sent to PPS

The first files in the Drumcree protest investigation are due to go to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) in a number of days, the chief constable Jon Boutcher has told the Policing Board.

Protests on Garvaghy Road in October blocked a contentious Orange Order parade, which a court had ruled could go ahead, from passing along the mainly nationalist street in Portadown, County Armagh.

Boutcher said that the number of people suspected of criminal offences in connection with the Drumcree protest has risen to 65.

He also confirmed that the cost of the stand-off was £5.5m and that it has worsened the PSNI's already difficult budget position.

"We are now reaching stages where files I know imminently will be passed to the public prosecution service but it's going to be an ongoing process and everyday we're interviewing more people... So lets wait to see what the public prosecution say about the evidence, about any potential criminal processes that may result," Boutcher said.

Boutcher said it will be "days rather than months" adding that they "are investing in this in the way you'd expect us to".

"There's a public confidence issue here, there's a responsibility on us to show that we're doing our job."

Boutcher added that a total of 23 people have now been interviewed as a result, they are known to include the First Minister Michelle O'Neill and other senior Sinn Fein politicians who were pictured blocking Garvaghy Road in Portadown.

The politicians have defended their involvement in the protests, saying they were "standing with the residents, " with O'Neill saying it was "always the right thing to do to stand on the Garvaghy Road" and added that the party was proud of its decision to do so.

A team of 30 officers is working through more than 70 hours of footage of the protest.

Boutcher rejected a claim that the investigation is taking too long and said it is progressing at speed.

"We're getting on with this very quickly ... I can't say whether 65 (people) is the limit.

"I know there have ben frustrations in the past about investigations that have taken a huge amount of time and felt like they were glacially slow.

"That's not the position with this."

Boutcher also addressed an intelligence document which emerged at a court case which found the secretary of state's decision to ban the parade had been lawful.

The document referenced "the feelings of the Provisional IRA".

It had been a part of a police commander's summary of intelligence.

Boutcher said: "I have spoken to that commander and the word "feelings" did not convey his thinking at the time and it has resulted in misinterpretation and misinformation.

"A better word would have been 'position' or 'the stance' of the Provisional IRA."

He added it was one piece of intelligence "amongst hundreds of pieces".

Later, he insisted: "There was no decision making about Drumcree because of the feelings of one group or another."

He said PIRA remains an illegal organisation and that a 2015 assessment stated it retained structures in a reduced form, but was not involved in targeting or attacks against the state.

"That position was reaffirmed in 2024 and remains the same today."

The latest flare-up of the Drumcree dispute has featured a number of legal challenges, involving the Parades Commission, Orange Order and Garvaghy Road residents.

The dispute first came to prominence in the mid-1990s and almost derailed the Northern Ireland peace process at the time.

When the Orange Order was prevented by police from walking down the route in July 1995 there was a tense stand-off. It was the same for the next three years.

The Parades Commission began operating in 1998 to regulate parades and try to defuse tension around marches.

Its decision not to allow a march down the Garvaghy Road that summer has been challenged by the order for the past three decades.

Read more here.

Last month the Parades Commission decided that the march could go ahead on 27 September with restrictions in place after its original decision to stop the march was overturned in court.

That morning, up to 1,000 people - including politicians such as First Minister Michelle O'Neill - blocked the road, preventing Orangemen marching from Drumcree Church a mile to the west.

An almost two-week-long stand-off began between protesters on the Garvaghy Road and members of the Orange Order and their supporters.

Since Sir Chris's decision to ban the parade almost three weeks ago, the daily protests have dissipated with the action mostly moving to the courtroom.