A Catholic PSNI officer is suing the police for alleged religious and political discrimination, it was confirmed today.
Belfast law firm KRW LAW is representing the veteran officer amid claims there are “residual sectarian attitudes which still unfortunately permeate the PSNI ”.
In a statement issued on Wednesday KRW LAW said they are acting on behalf of the officer who they are calling ‘Sean’. The statement confirmed they have “been instructed to issue high court civil proceedings for damages in relation to the religious and political discrimination suffered by him throughout his 20 years service in the police”.
Speaking today, solicitor Kevin Winters of KRW LAW, said: “This wasn’t an easy decision to make for ‘Sean’ to make given the well documented difficulties he experienced throughout his time in front line policing. However on balance he feels compelled to take this case if nothing else than to put a marker down. He sees his case contributing to opening up the debate on residual sectarian attitudes which still unfortunately permeate the PSNI.
“When he joined up just after the Good Friday Agreement he did so with the best of intentions to help make a change to policing and society. He never envisaged that 20 years later he’d be instructing solicitors to take legal action in relation to some of the problems he encountered during that time. He feels strongly enough about it to take a stand and in doing so hopefully contribute to making a culture change.
“Significantly, he’s not the only Catholic officer doing so. I can confirm this is the fourth such case we’ve been instructed in over the last 9 months. The common thread running through each of the case details relates to embedded cultural sectarianism some of which is at a low level but in other instances is quite significant. I have to state that in each case there’s an understandable hesitancy about venturing into legal action of this nature. Litigation generally can be fraught enough as it is without the added difficulties of both institutional pressure to keep quiet and risk of harm.
“I commend ‘Sean’ and the other officers in having the bravery to step forward. As understandably stressed by senior police personnel, as a proportion of the overall numbers in policing we are talking about an extremely small number of complainants. However, four officers serving or otherwise shouldn’t find themselves in 2025 having to take cases of this nature. It’s four too many.”
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English (United States) ·