Northern Ireland

PSNI officer understood to be facing disciplinary proceedings over secret application to access Jamie Bryson’s bank details

Loyalist activist’s court application over case led to police data breach as sensitive information on businesswoman and partner were handed over to him in error

Alan Lewis - PhotopressBelfast.co.uk 9-12-2024 Jamie Bryson at the High Court in Belfast where he has launched a challenge to the scheduled vote in the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont tomorrow, (Tuesday), on the post Brexit trading arrrangements agreed in the Windsor Framework.
Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson has said he now awaits a full report from the Police Ombudsman into PSNI officers involved in a secret court application to access his bank account. PICTURE: PHOTOPRESS (Alan Lewis - Photopress Belfast/Photopress Belfast)
By Paul Ainsworth

A PSNI officer has been referred by the Police Ombudsman for disciplinary proceedings following a court application to secretly access the bank account of loyalist Jamie Bryson, it is understood.

The investigation by the police watchdog is understood to have focused on five serving officers, with one now understood to be facing a disciplinary.

One other officer initially investigated is understood to have since retired.

Jamie Bryson lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman after it emerged officers had secretly applied to the Crown Court in 2017 in a bid to access his bank account.

The loyalist activist and commentator successfully sought a Crown Court order for all documents relating to the application to be handed over to him by the PSNI.

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However, he was mistakenly handed documents containing sensitive information including banking details of a businesswoman and her partner related to a completely separate police investigation.

The data breach caused “sleepless” nights for the worried couple, who said they feared their details could have been sent to more people by the PSNI in error.

There is no suggestion Mr Bryson shared the sensitive details with anyone else, and he has described his receiving of the documents as a “massive blunder” by police.

Through his court application, he received an intelligence report used by the PSNI and former Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris to secure a Public Interest Immunity certificate from a judge.

That report disclosed that police had no information linking Mr Bryson to criminality or any proscribed organisation.

He has described the police actions as a “witch hunt” and said disciplinary proceedings against the officer were a “welcome development”.

“I trust the PSNI will deal with this disciplinary matter swiftly, but there remains significant questions and I look forward to a detailed report from the Police Ombudsman on this scandal,” he said.

“There are elements of the PSNI who even senior officers have admitted to me were utterly obsessed with trying to find anything they could to try and smear me.

“They poked into every aspect of my life not investigating crime, but trying to find anything they could fit within that scope no matter how tenuous.”

When contacted by the Irish News in relation to the complaint probe, a spokesperson for the Police Ombudsman said: “The investigation remains ongoing.”