Little-Pengelly: People will be ‘incredulous’ over portrait prosecution decision

Northern Ireland’s deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly has said people will be “incredulous” that a man investigated over alleged criminal damage to a portrait of a former DUP Belfast lord mayor will not be prosecuted.

Ms Little-Pengelly said Sinn Fein needs to confirm that a man who resigned from the party was at the event in which the portrait of peer Lord Wallace Browne was damaged last October.

The damage to the portrait was discovered after an event hosted by an external Irish language organisation in Belfast City Hall.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill later informed the Northern Ireland Assembly that a Sinn Fein employee had made the party chief whip aware of their involvement in an incident regarding a portrait and that they had been suspended and then resigned.

The incident was investigated by police as a hate crime.

However the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) stated on Monday there is “no reasonable prospect of conviction for any criminal offence on the evidence available”.

The PPS said there was no CCTV coverage of the area around the portrait, as the relevant camera had been “out of service for some time”.

It added that the Sinn Fein employee’s resignation “contained no admission” and a man interviewed by police “exercised his right not to answer questions”.

Speaking to the media at Stormont on Tuesday, Ms Little-Pengelly said: “I think most people will be incredulous.

“As I understand it, this is a person who tendered their resignation to Sinn Fein because they were involved in the incident.

“Now we understand that that person is saying that they weren’t present at all.

“There were a number of Sinn Fein people present at that event and those people need to come forward and confirm that that person was in attendance.”

During question time at the Assembly on Monday, Ms O’Neill was asked if she would name the former party employee who had resigned.

The First Minister said: “The PPS have made their views known and I respect their position.”