MP Eastwood storms out of police station before being questioned over Bloody Sunday walk

Colum Eastwood has walked out of a police station ahead of an interview under caution with officers.

The Foyle MP was to attend Londonderry's Strand Road police station to be questioned on an alleged 'unnotified parade'.

After waiting for 20 O minutes, he walked out saying police had failed to interview him. He said it was a "a total and utter farce".

He said he will not be partaking any further in a investigation.

Police sought to interview him under caution for walking with the Bloody Sunday families to Bishop’s Street courthouse on 25 August for a hearing in relation to the prosecution of Soldier F.

The loyalist activist Jamie Bryson has confirmed he made the complaint over the march.

Mr Eastwood said the PSNI is aware of where he lives if they want to arrest him for refusing to continue to wait for an interview in relation.

It is thought that some other family members of Bloody Sunday victims are also to be questioned in connection with the incident.

The SDLP leader said: “I attended Strand Road police station today at a time pre-arranged with police to lodge a protest with the PSNI after being asked to be interviewed under caution for walking with Bloody Sunday families to court in August.

"I was there to tell them that they should not be hauling victims and their families in for questioning, re-traumatising them for walking together to court after 52 years of seeking justice.

"In the week that it was confirmed that someone will finally face a criminal prosecution for the events of that day, this process is an outrage.

“The SDLP has stood with Bloody Sunday families for 52 years. I have stood with them all my life - I was with them during the publication of the Saville report, I have been with them the whole way through the process of bringing someone to court and I have stood up for them at Westminster. I will be with them until the end of the line. “This isn’t about me - it’s about a 52 year struggle for justice against the interests of the British state and its agencies. These families have had justice delayed and denied for more than five decades. They have had their loved ones taken from them, their names blackened and their campaign whitewashed. “There is no person and no power that will ever, ever stop us standing with these families in their fight for justice."

Jamie Bryson, said in a statement: “If the Public Processions Act 1998 is to be rigorously enforced against unionists/loyalists, then so too must the same rigour be applied to nationalists and others. We cannot continue with a two-tier system. “This is not about the Bloody Sunday families who are entitled to pursue what they see as justice through the prism of their version of legacy matters, but rather simply about the equal application of the law.” In his complaint, Mr Bryson said the event “presents an important test for the PSNI’s commitment to equality under the law”.

In a statement, the PSNI said: "An investigation has commenced and, as enquiries are ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment any further at this time."

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