Statement by TUV Antrim and Newtownabby Councillor David Arthurs:
“I have been approached by many people who have been shocked to read Roy Suitters’s comments about Rathcoole.
“For a retired PSNI detective superintendent to brand 90% of the people there as connected with paramilitary organisations was totally unacceptable and something many residents took exception to.
“It does, however, speak to a disconnect between the PSNI and ordinary working class Loyalists in the area that an officer who held such a senior rank would seek to brand them all in this fashion.
“Unfortunately these comments and the sensationalist fashion in which they were reported by one newspaper this morning have caused huge and unwarranted damage to the reputation of the area. That is totally unacceptable. It is a slur which has offended many decent, law-abiding and hardworking people in the area and it needs to be publically withdrawn.”