06/06/2014 BBC Newsline

The son of a murdered RUC officer has accused the PSNI of blocking

efforts by the Police Ombudsman to investigate claims that his father's

killers were protected because an IRA informer was involved.

Gavin Larmour is backing the Ombudsman's legal action aimed

at forcing the Chief Constable to give him access to information

Our Home Affairs Correspondent, Vincent Kearney, reports.

Joined Larmour -- John Larmour was working in Hezbollah's ice cream

shop in Lisburn Road when he was killed.

No one has ever been charged. His son, Gavin, was 13 at the time.

Years later he complained to the police blitz on about the

investigation into the murder, claiming no one was charged because

at least one IRA informer was involved. Yesterday he attended a

public policing board hearing to hear the reasons the -- the PSNI

gave for not giving information you requested about 60 murders,

including his father's. The shop where the killing took

place is no longer there. He Gavin was far from satisfied

about what he heard. We heard from the chief constable

that dealing with this was debilitating. That is my experience.

The investigation and prosecution of those responsible, the only reason I

believe is to protect informers. The police insist any reluctance to hand

over information to Michael Maguire has nothing to do with the

sensitivity of the material or any desire to protect informants.

They say it is based on legal advice and they could actually be breaking

the law by making the information available.

The admin has been rejected by Michael Maguire and one of his

police predecessors in the role of ombudsman.

The law is absolutely clear, there is no room for any negotiation, the

law says the chief constable shall provide the police ombudsman for --

with such information as it requires.

For some reason can in the past month the police have stopped

providing information. They have a duty to do so, it is very simple.

The police say they hope they can come to an agreement with the

ombudsman that will avoid a need for the issue to be settled in court.

The Belfast pastor at the centre of a row over alleged anti-muslim

James McConnell, who called Islam "heathen" and "satanic", made the

apology after being questioned by the police, who are investigating

James McConnell and his legal team in -- emerged after almost two hours

of questioning. Can I see at the said he attended

voluntarily, there was no question of any arrest and we wanted to make

sure from the past's point of view that any equivocation was removed

from the situation he finds themselves in. -- the pastor's.

I wish to emphasise that I had no intention of causing any offence or

insulting any member of the middle and community. Or to arouse fear

Auster up or incite hatred towards any member of the Muslim community.

I wish to apologise publicly for any distress I may have unwittingly

caused on my part. Islam is heathen. Islam is satanic.

Islam is a doctrine spawned in hell. It is these remarks, delivered in

his Sunday sermon, that are the source of James McConnell's

problems. It caused an international

controversy that even involved in the First Minister, Peter Robinson,

who first supported the pastor that never apologised about remarks she

made about Muslims. Why was James McConnell apologising?

I am saying sorry to those who may have been harmed, because that was

never my intention. My intention was to preach against the Islamic

doctrine. And that has been blown out of all proportion.

Pastor, are you generally solidly -- genuinely sorry or is this an

attempt to avoid prosecution? At that point he was ushered off,

leaving more questions than answers. Your assistant has resigned, we are

told. What do you say about that? No other column is macro comments.

Sorry, boys, please come it has been a long morning, the man has a health

condition. Pastor McConnell stressed he was not

arrested, but this investigation is still continuing, it's out, far from

certain. -- its outcome.

Two brothers from County Armagh who travelled to Belfast to take part

in a loyalist protest last August have been jailed for rioting.

Andrew and Philip Moore, from Kearnan Gardens in Portadown,

were caught on CCTV camera throwing missiles at

police during violent scenes that followed an anti internment march.

They have been sentenced to 11 months in custody with

BBC Newsline has been told that potentially lethal drugs are being

sold for as little ?2 - less than a pint of beer.

It follows the revelation yesterday that the deaths of 20 people

across Northern Ireland were linked to the same drug.

A night out that ends in hospital treatment or worse, because of

drugs. It is a familiar story, and Derry

Doctor, Simon O'Hagan, is hearing it too often.

Apparently, some of these drugs are available as cheaply as ?2, when you

compare that to the cost of a pint, some people attempted by the whole

thing of a couple of pounds, I can take this thing and apparently have

the best night of my life. You might have the best night going, but at

the same time you may potentially died from it.

Do not play Russian roulette with your life.

The deaths of 20 people have been linked to a new one regulated drug

that appeared last year. It has been described as a serial killer, which

is still on the loose. The police investigation is focusing

on organised crime gangs, and already they have detected a number

of different supply chains. And for all those involved in combating drug

use, that is the key - the best way to prevent any more deaths is to cut

off the supply at source. You do not know what is in them, you

bought them last week from one source, you get them again and it

may not be the same thing. Dogs are a legal because they are

bad. Do not take them. -- drugs are illegal. There are some

signs the messages are getting through. Our treatment services are

being inundated by individuals coming to try and get help and

support. Our agency last year had 3500 people

through it. Taking drugs for many on a night out

is the aim, but everyone knows it is a lot easier said than done.

The role Northern Ireland played in the D-Day landings has been

commemorated at an event in County Fermanagh.

Crom Castle was used as a base by US troops as they prepared

Among the 200 guests were servicemen and the son of a GI who travelled

from America to find out more about his father's wartime experience.

My father came over me 20th 1942. We have him photographed in front of a

castle. We know he was stationed in northern France at one time,

England, Germany. I don't know specifics of his battles. He had

some campaigns in northern France, I know that. I don't know which ones.

Now it is to the weekend weather forecast.

Good evening. After a pleasant day today we have a warning for heavy

rain overnight tonight. We could see up to one inch of rain within an

hour during the heaviest downpours as this band of rain works in

through the wee small hours of Saturday morning. It is a mild

tonight because of the cloud cover, but some really quite torrential

downpours. It means we start the weekend with a lot of rain around.

It will pick up just a little bit. There may be some hailstones and fun

are mixed in with that as it works its way through and what is driving

it is this low-pressure system. -- hailstones and thunder.

Look at all this rain across England as we go through the day, pushing up

into southern Scotland, as well. We will feel the impact of that across

Northern Ireland. As we go into the afternoon, we will see showers

breaking up and they will be fewer and further between across the

Republic and Northern Ireland on Saturday afternoon. Decent dry

spells in the afternoon on Sunday -- Saturday. Sunday is a better day,

still rain around but more bright spells. The showers will be

occasionally quite heavy, temperatures are reasonable, 17 or

18 Celsius through the day. I'm afraid we're looking at an unsettled

spell of weather in the next few days, a real mix of sunshine and

showers as we head through the weekend and into the start of next

week. Thank you for watching. Good night.