McCartney murder: Police have 150 witness statements
Police investigating the murder of Robert McCartney have statements from more than 150 witnesses, it was revealed tonight.
As detectives continued to question two men about the horrific Belfast killing of the Catholic father-of-two, senior officers revealed the extent of their inquiries.
Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde said the police’s painstaking efforts showed their “absolute commitment” to bring the case to a judicial conclusion.
“It is what we want, it is what the families want. It will be in accordance with the law and hopefully we will see some developments in the near future.”
Mr Orde was speaking afte a public meeting of the Policing Board in Derry at which Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kincaid revealed that 151 statements had been received, 25 houses searched and 80 hours of CCTV footage seized for examination.
Mr Kincaid disclosed that 10 people had provided signed statements through the offices of the police ombudsman, and the ombudsman had contacted the PSNI again in recent days to say that men arrested and questioned about the murder all had remained silent during interrogation.
He said the police service was still of the opinion that members of the Provisional IRA were involved in the brutal murder but officers did not believe it was sanctioned by the IRA. He said there was clear evidence of a forensic clean-up after the killing.
Mr McCartney, 33, from the Short Strand area of Belfast, was stabbed to death after being dragged from a Belfast city-centre bar at the end of January.
Yesterday police arrested two men, both from the nearby Markets area.
One, a 49 year old, was detained in Belfast while the other, aged 36, was seized by armed officers at a bedsit in Birmingham and dragged away wearing just his boxer shorts.
