E, Re Application for Judicial Review

[3] �E�, the mother of one of the children affected by the protest, issued proceedings in November 2001 for judicial review in the form of a declaration that the Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland had failed to secure the effective implementation of the criminal law and to ensure safe passage for her and for her daughter to the school. �E� was afforded anonymity for the safety of her child and the proceedings concluded in June 2004 when her application was dismissed.

[8] With such a marked difference of opinion between �E� and her witnesses and the police as to the adequacy of the protection provided by them it is necessary to summarise the evidence. First we consider it from the aspect of �E� and her witnesses and then from that of the police officers and others responsible for making decisions as to how to cope with the situation that faced them.

[13] �E� claimed that by failing to assert authority over the protesters the police were acting collusively in support of an agenda to reassert historic demographic patterns. She attributed the behaviour of the �Loyalist� crowd to the movement of new families into the area whose political and paramilitary affiliation differed from the loyalist force at that time dominant in the Shankill Road area and this had resulted in a feud between these two groups.

[14] When �E� swore her affidavit, in early November 2001, to her knowledge only eight people had been arrested and some of those who had been admitted to bail on condition that they did not return to the area had done so. She claimed that the police were guilty of discrimination in that no one was arrested after the disturbance at the school in June but by contrast a limited protest by �Nationalists� at a 12 th of July parade in North Belfast was met with screens being put in place and a number of arrests being made.

[15] �E� complained not only of a failure by the police to enforce the law but of unequal treatment as between �Loyalists� and �Nationalists�. Independent observers were not permitted by the police to use video cameras to record the scenes on Ardoyne Road and when they protested they were told that members of the �Loyalist� crowd objected to having their actions recorded by video camera. By contrast, �E� said almost daily she saw �Loyalists� recording on video the parents and children as they walked to and from school.