Irish News, 12.5.2000

Lucky that one cop had a conscience

By Steven McCaffrey

LOTS of people have told Bernard Griffin he is a “lucky man”. He is not sure if he agrees with them. He is ‘lucky’ because an honest policeman refused to go along with the cover-up planned against him.

Lucky, because had the officer not acted, Bernard Griffin, and not the officers who conspired against him, could today be in prison. Lucky or not, Mr Griffin is at the centre of an unprecedented case.

On Wednesday Belfast crown court accepted he was beaten by police, who then threatened to have him killed by the LVF, before eventually attempting to charge him with attacking them.

His complaint against the RUC has, for the first time in a case of its kind, seen two officers jailed. The whistle blower and a soldier who agreed to testify against the conspiring officers, were each fined £1,000.

Speaking to the Irish News yesterday in his Whitewell home in north Belfast, 21-year-old Mr Griffin recalled how the episode began in the early hours of February 2 1998.

“I came out of the GAA (in Ardoyne) and I was just standing waiting for a burger. This RUC man came over and said: ‘We have observed you for an hour throwing bottles at a police patrol.’

“There was nothing I could say to him, I mean I wasn’t (throwing bottles), I was just out of the GAA.

“He just put me into the back of the jeep. As soon as the doors was closed the front-seat (RUC) passenger asked me my name. I didn’t answer him.

“He started beating me up, saying: ‘What’s your name you Fenian bastard?’

“He hit me with the baton on the back of the head, round the mouth. He digged me in the face. He kept calling me a Fenian bastard.

“He seen I was wearing a Celtic top and he goes: “He’s f*****g wearing a Celtic top.’

“He tried to pull it off me and exposed my bare back and kept whacking me. Then he pulled me up close to him and put the baton to my head like a gun and says: ‘We’ll get the LVF to shoot you. We’ll drop you off at the Shankill.’

“I thought I was never going to get out of the jeep alive. I was relieved when I got to Antrim Road barracks. I was covered in blood and crying and saying these ones have assaulted me. I didn’t know until afterwards they hit each other and said I assaulted them and resisted arrest.”

Mr Griffin was charged with disorderly behaviour. The arresting officers would unsuccessfully seek to have staff in the station also charge him with assault and resisting arrest.

Days later RUC reservist Andrew Timothy Lea (39), who had been in the Land Rover, went to his superiors to report the cover-up.

The false charges were later dropped against Mr Griffin. The three RUC officers and a British soldier who were present in the Land Rover were all placed under investigation.

But his solicitor says the case against the four had reached the high court when, within weeks, police raided Mr Griffin’s home.

“It was a Sunday morning,” he said. “I was sleeping. My brother came up to me and said: ‘The police are at the door they are asking for you.’

“I went down and they said: ‘We’re raiding the house for explosives.’

“They raided the house and in the attic they claimed to find a bomb. I think it (the search) was directed at me, because my brother lives here too, but they asked for me.

“I didn’t know anything about it (the device)...I maintained they planted it there to discredit my evidence against the police.”

In September 1999, Mr Griffin’s brother was granted bail on the explosives charges, though Bernard was remanded in custody and sent to Hydebank young offenders centre where he was held until December 22 when the charges were dropped.

Mr Griffin’s solicitor has described the alleged explosives find and the decision to then drop charges as “highly suspicious”.

There is no evidence linking the find with the case against the four security force members in which Mr Griffin was a key witness. But Mr Griffin says he is suspicious and he alleges that during the search an officer said: “You’re the one who has those police officers up in court? I thought you were.”

The entire episode has impacted on his life and the life of his family. Mr Griffin said: “Since this started my life has just been a nightmare...” He will leave Northern Ireland now, but what does he want for the future? “I want to be able to live in peace,” he said.

Chronology of events

Feb 2 1998: Assaulted by RUC officers in Land Rover after being arrested in Ardoyne accused of disorderly conduct. Officers agree to cover up the assault

Charges against Mr Griffin dropped during intervening period after one of the officers, Andrew Lea, reports the cover-up to his superiors
Mr Griffin continues to pursue an assault charge against RUC officers

Sept 22 1999: Fresh charges brought after Mr Griffin is accused, along with his younger brother Kenneth, with possessing coffee jar bomb and shotgun cartridges after an RUC search at his home

Spends three months on remand in Hydebank Young Offenders Centre awaiting trial

December 22 1999: Charges dropped

February 7 2000: Police officers accused of assault due to stand trial. The case is put back for two days after one of the accused, soldier Matthew Butcher, — who was with the police officers — admits perverting the course of justice

February 9 2000: Trial of remaining accused due to begin when they also change their pleas to guilty

April 12 2000: Due for sentencing — the day after RUC is awarded George Cross — but sentencing is put back for several weeks

May 10 2000: Two RUC officers jailed for assault and perverting the course of justice by trying to cover up the attack. Lea and Butcher fined for their part in the cover-up