The Five Demands

Ombudsman’s Office held body parts (UTV)
The Police Ombudsman’s Office has admitted that it also stored body parts of four victims of unexplained deaths without telling their relatives.
Ombudsman’s Office said it carried out its own audit. (© Pacemaker)
Earlier this week the PSNI apologised for retaining 71 items of human tissue, including bones and organs, from 64 people – without their knowledge.
The Ombudsman’s Office has carried out an internal audit following the Association of Chief Police Officers investigation.
“We have completed this work and have established that we hold items of human tissue from the bodies of four people,” a spokesperson for the office said.
“The people in question died in incidents during the period from 2001 to 2006, all of which have been subject to Police Ombudsman investigation.”
The Ombudsman’s Office said it regrets not providing victims’ relatives with the information sooner.
Meanwhile the Justice Committee at Stormont has been hearing from Assistant Chief Constable George Hamilton, the man charged with dealing with the issue.
He said the police are working to ensure that information is passed on to the affected families in a sensitive fashion.
“We are going everything we can to communicate with the families as quickly as possible,” ACC Hamilton told the committee on Thursday.
“As of this morning we have had family liaison meetings with 21 families and have passed on the information in as sensitive and caring a way as possible.
“Myself, the Chief Constable and the entire PSNI are deeply concerned about the impact and anguish caused to the families as a result of this distressing news we are now passing to them and we offer our apologies for that again.”
An audit of body tissue retained by police forces across the UK prompted the PSNI’s disclosure earlier this week.
Most of those affected in Northern Ireland suffered Troubles-related deaths, with the cases largely involving murder, suspicious deaths and road deaths.
The PSNI said body parts have been retained from 1960 to 2005, and that new evidence is sometimes located years after an incident and pathologists can re-examine the tissue for links.
They added that the body parts would be handed back or dealt with as the families wish if no longer needed for investigations.
First Minister Peter Robinson told UTV the matter has been “highly controversial” and said there are many questions to answer.
“You only have to put yourself in the position of the family of one of the victims to know the kind of anguish that is going to be caused,” the DUP leader said.
“It will mean everyone will have to relive that occasion right through to the burying of the body parts.
“It is a massively controversial issue, lots of questions will have to be asked, but how it can happen without the families being aware seems to me entirely unacceptable.”
An emergency statement on the issue is to be made to the Assembly on Monday.