Inside story of murder bid on top cop, Sunday Life
The attempted murder of DCI Caldwell was widely condemned across the political spectrum, including by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who later visited the senior police officer in hospital. Within days of the attack our sources were briefing us on the background. We first named the senior dissident republicans being blamed for organising the shooting and the following week our scoop revealed an alliance which was a first for terrorism in Northern Ireland, a region well used to paramilitary violence over 50 years. Our March 5 edition revealed how a crime gang with a Protestant/loyalist background joined forces with the republican New IRA to try to kill DCI Caldwell, one of Northern Ireland’s top detectives who had solved many murder, terrorism and crime cases. Even with Northern Ireland’s history of violence this was a shocking development from different sides of the religious divide. The New IRA was initially formed by previous members of the mainstream IRA after they declared a ceasefire and, like all IRA breakaway groups, exclusively recruited members from the Catholic/nationalist/republican community. One of the crime gang suspects, who has since been charged in the non-jury case, was also a former gunman for the UVF, a loyalist terror group which has killed hundreds of Catholics and republicans. The opposing factions were united in hate for a police officer who helped bring many of their associates to justice. Since we broke this story seven people have been charged with the murder bid, four of whom are Protestants, including the two brothers and father of the ex-soldier and convicted drugs baron we named, Ashley McLean. The case outlined so far has completely confirmed our scoop. (see attachment for court copy)
People across Northern Ireland and beyond are fascinated by this case and the alliances exposed by it. It was one of our most subscribed stories of the year and most read. Since we published the story DCI John Caldwell has spoken publicly for the first time about the attack when we presented him with an award at our annual Spirit of Northern Ireland Awards event. The Prime Minister announced him as winner and our words, pictures and video on his and DCI Caldwell’s speeches was widely used by other media afterwards.