Statement by TUV Larne councillor Ruth Wilson:
“Whatever the skills or experience of Judith Thompson the position to which she has been appointed is of very limited use to innocent victims due to the flawed definition of victim contained within the legislation under which she operates.
“The 2006 Victims and Survivors Order draws no distinction between the innocent victim caught up in a terrorist attack while going about their normal business and the bomber who goes out with murder in his heart and is injured by his own explosion.
“This perversion of the very notion of justice is repugnant to all innocent victims. Yet it is within the framework of this legislation that the the Commissioner will be expected to operate.
“There will be many innocent victims of the IRA who will find the fact that this appointment was made jointly by Mr Robinson and his co-equal Martin McGuinness – a self-confessed IRA commander – hard to stomach.
“The core issue as far as innocent victims were concerned was not the lack of a Commissioner but the lack of a Commissioner who could stand up for their interests without regarding terrorists as equal to their victims.”