Ex-PSNI officer seeking legal advice over comments made at Investigatory Powers Tribunal

A former senior officer at the Police Service of Northern Ireland is seeking legal advice following comments attributed to her during a hearing of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.

Barbara Gray, former assistant chief constable at the PSNI, said she was “deeply angered and offended” by comments attributed to her by a former detective who headed a leak investigation in Northern Ireland.

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal is investigating claims that the PSNI and other police forces unlawfully placed journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney under surveillance after they produced a documentary exposing police failures to investigate the murder of innocent Catholics by a paramilitary group.

Former detective Darren Ellis emailed Durham Constabulary, claiming that a senior PSNI officer, now identified as Gray, had urged him to “exercise caution” when dealing with solicitors, barristers and members of the judiciary.

“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.

“She informed me of what she 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.

In a statement seen by Computer Weekly, Gray that she would seek legal advice about Ellis’s comments.

“I am aware of comments attributed to me yesterday as a result of evidence given by Mr Darren Ellis to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal sitting in London,” she said.

“I am deeply angered and offended by these comments. To clarify, and for the avoidance of any doubt, I have the utmost respect for the judiciary and wider legal profession in Northern Ireland and have done so throughout my 35 year career,” she added.

“I firmly believe in the fundamental principle of equality, integrity and impartiality,” she said.

Gray said that contrary to evidence given by Ellis on 2 of October 2024 at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, Gray had directly challenged Ellis on written comments he had made criticising Northern Ireland's Lord Chief Justice.

She said she  considered the comments to be totally unacceptable and inappropriate.

Ellis was brought in by the PSNI and Durham Police in 2018 to head an investigation into leaked documents were referred to in a documentary film made by Birney and McCaffrey, exposing police collusion with a paramilitary group in the Loughinisland murders in 1994.

The tribunal is investigating allegations that the PSNI and other police forces unlawfully placed the journalists under surveillance as part of their investigation.