Press Releases - 2003

8 May 2003

Police Federation welcomes Blunkett's sentencing proposals

The Chairman of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland Irwin Montgomery has called for the Home Secretary's proposals to stipulate tougher minimum sentences for murder to be also introduced in Northern Ireland.

Mr Montgomery said that police officers would particularly support the view that there should be no prospect of release for terrorist murderers and that the killing of a police officer in the line of duty would have a minimum 30 year tariff.

He said that if Northern Ireland was to become a normal society then the normal punishment tariffs of the rest of the United Kingdom should be introduced. He noted that the murder of a police officer in the Republic of Ireland carried a mandatory 40 year sentence. "The time for Northern Ireland being regarded as a special case has to end and a line drawn under the misguided generosity which has been shown to terrorist activists. We cannot fail to always remember that 302 of our colleagues were murdered. There can be no room for a two-tier justice system."