In August 2019 the High Court in Belfast quashed search warrants used to seize confidential journalistic material from the homes and offices of two public interest journalists, Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey.
The police were investigating a leak of documents from the Office of the Police Ombudsman. These had been referred to by the journalists in their 2018 documentary “No Stone Unturned”, concerning the murder by loyalists of six catholic men at Loughinisland in 1994.
Today the court was notified that a settlement had been reached of all of the journalists outstanding public and common law claims against the police, arising out of the searches and their arrests, by which the police agreed to pay nearly £900,000 in compensation plus costs. Gavin Millar QC was instructed by John Finucane, of Finucane Toner Solicitors and represented Barry McCaffrey.