Police to investigate source of ‘surveillance material’

POLICE have not ruled out the possibility that cameras found near Kelly’s Inn at Garvaghey were placed in the area by British intelligence agencies.

Local people are understood to have found three cameras on a hillside overlooking the popular hotel on the main A5 between Ballygawley and Omagh.

It is believed that the high-powered cameras, a transmitter and battery pack were all discovered dug into the hillside.

Speaking at a meeting of the local Policing and Community Partnership on Tuesday, the PSNI’s District Commander for Fermanagh and Omagh, Superintendent Alywin Barton, said the cameras had ‘nothing to do’ with policing.

He instead speculated that the cameras could belong to NIE Networks, but did leave open the possibility that the cameras were placed in the area by security agencies.

“It is my understanding that there are a range of cameras over a long stretch of geographical area and they were installed as part of a traffiic survey,” Supt Barton said in response to a question from PCSP member and Sinn Fein councillor, Barry McElduff.

“We need to have a conversation with NIE Networks over the exact locations and if those exact locations do not cover this area then that points towards asking other agencies about them.

“It is nothing to do with policing and enforcement at this time.”

NIE Networks has stated that the cameras do not belong to them.

Cllr Barry McElduff said there was ‘deep feeling’ in the local community about the discovery of the cameras.

“People want answers: Who put them there, why were they placed there and do they have legal status?

“If it wasn’t the PSNI who put them there, could it be other agencies, including the British army?

“Local people are disturbed and very worried about this sinister development.”

Ulster Unionist councillor, Allan Rainey, lives close to the area where the cameras were found.

He said people in the locality felt that the cameras were spying in the direction of the property that they were focused on.

He added that locals wanted their minds to be put at ease.