McConville probe police seek copies of Price interviews

Boston College case, Dolours Price

McConville probe police seek copies of Price interviews
Liam Clarke
Belfast Telegraph
October 6, 2012

The PSNI has requested nonbroadcast footage of a US TV interview with Dolours Price as part of their investigation into the murder of Jean McConville. As well as the request to CBS, it has also asked the Sunday Telegraph for notes, tapes and other materials of its interview with Ms Price last month.

The new move by the police comes on top of the force’s decision to pursue Boston College through the courts for the taped testimonies of Ms Price and seven other former IRA members.

Those tapes were taken for the college’s Belfast project by Dr Anthony McIntyre, a former IRA prisoner, working under the direction of Ed Moloney, a former Belfast journalist now living in New York.

Last month Mr Moloney and Mr McIntyre both lodged sworn affidavits in a Belfast Court saying that the PSNI should not have access to the Boston tapes because, they claimed, Ms Price never mentioned the murder of Jean Mc-Conville in them.

However, in her Sunday Telegraph and CBS interviews, Ms Price claims that she was involved and hints that she said as much in the Boston tapes.

Last night Mr McIntyre strongly denied she had said anything about it during the interview.

The Boston case, now winding its way towards the US Supreme Court, has been opposed by leading US figures including Senator John Kerry on the grounds that it endangers academic freedom.

Sonya McNair at CBS News said: “We have received the request… we will respond in accordance with our policy.”

Security sources confirmed that both news organisations had been approached, but a PSNI spokesman was more guarded. He stated: “Detectives are continuing to follow a number of lines of inquiry in relation to the murder or Jean McConville.”

background The US Supreme Court will shortly decide whether taped confessions of former IRA members can be released to PSNI detectives. They want the tapes as part of their investigation into the murder of Jean McConville in 1972. The tapes are held by Boston College. They were recorded on condition that they would only be released after the death of those involved.