Question
To ask the Chief Constable to provide information on the extent and nature of the liaison between the Investigating Officer team and the family of Noah Donohoe and can he confirm that the PII applications will only serve to secure the withholding of information on police technologies and tactics and not information pertaining to the circumstances of Noah’s death nor facts of the involvement of any other person in Noah’s disappearance and death.
Answer
At the request of the Donohoe family, all contact is via their legal representative, Mr Niall Murphy, KRW Law, who receives updates on a regular basis.
At this juncture, a decision has yet to be taken in relation to any application for Public Interest Immunity (PII). If we make a decision to assert PII in this case, the next step in the process is for further scrutiny by the Secretary or Minister of State for Northern Ireland. The final decision is a matter for the Coroner, but regardless of the position relating to PII, the Coroner will see everything.
As previously outlined at the Board meeting of 3 March, the Police Service must consider the necessity to redact information in circumstances where it may create a risk to someone’s life or relates to their private information, for example, names, dates of birth, addresses, telephone numbers for people who have provided information to the police. Where possible, within the appropriate legal framework, we will seek to apply redactions rather than PII and given the exceptional nature of this case, and with the Coroner’s consent, where we carry out redactions, we will seek to provide additional information to explain the redaction. To be clear, in this instance, the contents of every intelligence document is being released.
Other information being assessed for consideration of PII are matters such as references to police methodology, for example where the Police Service has used specific software and capabilities to examine devices, phones and computers.
Dolores Kelly - SDLP