Chief Constable apologises for arrests of two Belfast journalists

Journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney leave Musgrave PSNI station in Belfast last year. Credit: Pacemaker

Northern Ireland's police chief has made an unreserved apology to two journalists arrested over material that appeared in a documentary on a Troubles massacre.

Simon Byrne wrote to Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey to apologise after the Court of Appeal quashed a search warrant used to raid their homes and offices in August 2018.

Mr McCaffrey and Mr Birney were arrested over the alleged theft of a police watchdog document that appeared in their film No Stone Unturned about a notorious loyalist massacre in Loughinisland, Co Down in 1994, during the Northern Ireland Troubles.

The investigation into the documentary makers was later dropped.

Mr Byrne sent separate letters to the men on Thursday.

In the letter to Mr Birney, he wrote: "I am writing to you on behalf of the Police Service of Northern Ireland to place on record my unreserved apology to you and your family for the distress and upset caused by the execution of search warrants at your home and business premises on 31 August 2018."