A former RUC officer who handcuffed himself to the railings outside Downing Street in protest against the proposed reform of the service will not face criminal proceedings, Scotland Yard said last night.
Mr William Montgomery, whose son was the youngest RUC officer killed by the IRA in 1981, mounted the protest with a former RUC officer, Mr William Frazer, who handed in a petition to police officers standing at the gates of Downing Street condemning the Patten Commission's "hatchet job" on the RUC.
The two men were not arrested and the protest was not illegal. Scotland Yard said that because no one was arrested during the protest criminal charges would not be brought.
During the protest, the men held up a banner with the pictures of all 302 RUC officers who have been shot dead in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
Mr Montgomery described his protest against the Patten Commission's report on the future of policing in Northern Ireland as symbolic and said the report "sickened me in the stomach when I read it".
"No one has come to ask us, the relatives of the victims, about the so-called peace process. The government are more happy talking to people who committed the crimes rather than those who have suffered by the crimes. The whole thing is an insult to those who died. It is a complete capitulation to the terrorists."
Mrs Pearl Graham and Mrs Thelma Johnston, whose sons were the last two RUC constables murdered by the IRA before the present ceasefire, also joined the protest. Mrs Graham said she wanted to highlight the sacrifice their sons had made for liberty.
However, Mrs Johnston said she believed the protest would not change government policy. A Downing Street spokeswoman said the petition would be passed to the Northern Ireland Office to form part of its consultation process on the Patten Commission report.