MATT BAGGOTT, IL TERRORISMO E’ UN’IMPRESA CRIMINALE
Il Chief Constable Matt Baggott fornisce la sua visione sul terrorismo in Irlanda del Nord
Il neo eletto Chief Constable della PSNI ha affermato che tratterà i gruppi di dissidenti repubblicani come bande criminali, perchè sarebbe un grave errore considerare il terrorismo isolatamente dalla criminalità.
Matt Baggott prosegue pertanto sulla linea della consapevolezza dell’attuale minaccia dissidente, come dimostrano le dichiarazioni rilasciate al termine del primo incontro ufficiale con la sua controparte irlandese, il commissario della Garda Fachtna Murphy, avvenuto a Dublino.
Murphy ha ribadito l’impegno dei suoi ufficiali nel continuare la fruttuosa collaborazione con la PSNI nella lotta al Real IRA e al Continuity IRA, impiegando forze specializzate a sorveglianza delle aree di confine, così come dei valichi stradali repubblicani nei pressi di South Armagh.
Matt Baggott nell’occasione si è anche assunto una parte di responsabilità per un fatto che ha scosso il Leicestershire, all’epoca del suo servizio. Nel 2007 Fiona Pilkington decise di togliersi la vita insieme alla figlia disabile, vittime entrambe di ripetuti comportamenti anti-sociali e bullismo, da sempre denunciati ma a cui la polizia non ha mai dato seguito.
Baggott to treat dissidents as criminal gangs (U TV)
Northern Ireland’s new Chief Constable has declared that he will treat dissident republican groups as criminal gangs.
Warning that the threat from breakaway factions was serious, Matt Baggott said it was a huge mistake to see terrorism as isolated from criminality.
“I think it’s very helpful to see it as a criminal enterprise,” he said.
Mr Baggott, who took over from Sir Hugh Orde last week as head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), was speaking in Dublin after his first official meeting with his counterpart in the Irish Republic, Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy.
Both insisted that the “truly impressive” co-operation between their police forces would continue to be key in the fight against the likes of the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA.
Mr Murphy dismissed suggestions that gangland criminality in the Republic was straining resources available to fight the terrorist threat.
The Garda Commissioner said key specialist units were keeping a presence along the border, after the recent discovery of a massive bomb, as well as dissident republican road checkpoints in South Armagh.
Asked for his assessment of the threat, he said: “We both see it as substantial.”
Mr Murphy said the threat was being directed at Northern Ireland.
Inquiry
Meanwhile the police force that PSNI chief constable Matt Baggott quit for his new role in Northern Ireland has been partly blamed for the death of a mother and her disabled daughter.
Fiona Pilkington from Leicestershire took her own life because she was being terrorised by a gang of yobs.
She also unlawfully killed her 18-year-old disabled daughter by setting light to the family’s car.
An inquest jury heard she’d made more than 30 calls for help to police.
The Five Demands 