A senior police officer at the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) claimed that the province’s judicial system made “perverse decisions” because of the disproportionate number of Catholics in the court system.
Former detective Darren Ellis told his employer, Durham Constabulary, that a senior PSNI officer had urged him to “exercise caution” when dealing with solicitors, barristers and members of the judiciary.
The disclosure was made in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal in London, which is investigating claims that the PSNI and other police forces unlawfully placed two Northern Ireland journalists under surveillance in an attempt to identify their confidential sources.
Ellis claimed to have received the warning after agreeing to lead an investigation into the source of leaked information used by journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney in a film exposing police failure to investigate the paramilitary murders of six innocent Catholics in Loughinisland, County Down.
According to an email read out in court, the PSNI officer informed Ellis that “the prevalence of those from a Catholic background within the Northern Ireland courts system” had led to “perverse decisions” in the criminal justice system.
“The senior officer informed me of the tensions within the legal system and advised me to ‘exercise caution’ when dealing with solicitors, barristers and members of the judiciary, given the disproportionate representation of those from a Roman Catholic background,” Ellis wrote in an email to officers at Durham Constabulary.
“[The officer] informed me of what [they] considered to be ‘perverse decision-making’ within criminal justice processes by those of a religious and political persuasion, given the prevalence of those from a catholic background within the Northern Ireland courts system,” Ellis wrote.
Lord chief justice ruling ‘beggars belief’
The court heard that Ellis had also emailed officers in the PSNI criticising the lord chief justice of Northern Ireland, Declan Morgan, for ruling that the PSNI had unlawfully obtained warrants to arrest the two journalists.
The email described the lord chief justice’s decision as an “absolute outrage” that “beggars belief”.
The court heard that Ellis received a reprimand for sending the email from a senior PSNI officer the following day.
Former Durham Constabulary detective Darren Ellis
Under cross-examination, Ellis declined to say whether the emails he sent were appropriate, saying he considered them to be legally privileged communications and was surprised they were being disclosed in the tribunal.
He said he criticised the lord chief justice on narrow grounds because the court had given the PSNI just 24 hours to respond to the decision against it, not the 28 days required by law.
“If I was to write this email today, it might be quite different. But on the field of play, that was the words I used,” he told the court.
Ellis said his investigation was always going to be difficult. “It was always going to pit law enforcement against the journalist community,” he said.
He denied suggestions that he agreed with the PSNI officer who told him that the Northern Ireland judiciary made “perverse decisions”.
“One of the reasons I did not want to take that investigation is that I did not understand the Northern Ireland community,” he said.
MP accused of ‘criminal conduct’
Ellis had also objected to MP Grahame Morris having his photograph taken with Birney and McCaffrey, after it was posted on Twitter.
Darren Ellis objected to MP Grahame Morris (centre) having his photograph taken with Trevor Birney (right) and Barry McCaffrey (left) outside court
The court heard that Ellis had asked Durham police to investigate alleged “criminal conduct” by Morris.
Ellis explained that he had passed information to Durham Constabulary merely for the police force to assess.
“I am asking them to do a preliminary to see if I am right. I might not be right,” he said. “Durham’s response was that there was not sufficient information to record a crime.”
Ben Jaffey KC, acting for McCaffrey, asked whether he had called McCaffrey and Birney thieves in a phone call to the MP’s office.
“No. I am laughing because it’s an outrageous allegation against me, and one which I take extremely personally.”
Journalists not held to account
Ellis was also asked about an email he sent to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal claiming that Birney and McCaffrey and their legal teams operated in a community where “no one ever holds them to account”.
He said the system “simply allows them to ride roughshod over people who ‘dare’ challenge them”.
Journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney outside court with supporters
“For too long they shout and brawl and intimidate others. I consider it to be a strategy to frighten and softly intimidate and hence place a ring of steel around corrupt activity,” he wrote.
Ellis told the court that he knew there was going to be a wide disagreement when he came to Northern Ireland because he was looking at journalistic material. “I could fill this room with people of a similar view,” he said.
Ellis denied suggestions that he found it difficult to deal with people who challenged his decisions. “Absolutely not. I have had 30 years of it. I am a fair and ethical guy. I want people to be truthful and perform to a standard. But when they don’t, I am sorry, I express an opinion,” he said.
“I have had no [legal] advice, no support. So pardon me if I have used one or two words in these documents that you feel inappropriate.”
Objectivity questioned
Stephen Toal KC, representing Birney, claimed that Ellis had lost all objectivity in the course of the investigation into alleged leaks from the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland (PONI).
He asked Ellis about his contact with former senior PSNI officers in the Retired Officers Association in Northern Ireland.
Ellis agreed that he knew the association had brought a number of judicial review cases against the Police Ombudsman and had grievances against PONI.
Toal suggested Ellis had created the impression that he was not independent at all by meeting with retired officers who had a grievance with the ombudsman service and journalists.
“You have lied at every single opportunity,” said Toal.
“I want it on record that is disgraceful. It’s not the truth,” said Ellis.
PSNI dismissed Ellis from investigation
The court heard that the PSNI had failed to disclose to the tribunal that it had asked for Ellis’s involvement in the investigation to end because it had lost confidence in him as a result of his misconduct.
The matter had only come to light because correspondence was leaked to the press yesterday, said Jaffey.
He said Ellis came to the investigation with strong negative views about the documentary and the journalists who made it, and that contrasted with Ellis’s protestations that he was only interested in secret documents.
Jaffey told the court that anyone who disagreed with Ellis could face the “strongest allegations of criminality” or “improper conduct”.
Ellis has spent a lot of time at the Law Society of Northern Ireland trying to get the journalists’ lawyers disciplined. “That is not normal policing behaviour,” he said.
He told the court that Ellis had a deep personal grievance about journalistic activities and assistance given to them by legal professionals. “We do respectfully submit that Ellis is an intelligent and experienced policeman. Accusing lawyers of harassment, or engaging in sport and payback, are serious matters,” said Jaffey.
Justices were ‘sectarians in robes’
Jaffey invited the court to conclude that Ellis’s claims that a senior PSNI officer had told him the judiciary made perverse decisions because of the preponderance of Catholics in the system were untrue.
“Once it had been seen that he went over the top with his views about the lord chief justice, he attempted to put forward a context: ‘Oh, well it was a senior PSNI officer’,” he said.
“The insight he put forward was the senior justices in Northern Ireland made perverse decisions because of their political beliefs and religious backgrounds, Those justices have violated their political beliefs to be sectarians in robes,” Jaffey told the court.
He said that in England, that would be racism. In Northern Ireland, it was dangerous.
The case continues.
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