A report by the Office of the Police Ombudsman has found no evidence to support allegations that police injured a man who suffered serious head wounds during riots in Belfast's Short Strand area earlier this year.
However the report has also said that the fact no members of the public who were in the area at the time of the incident have come forward as witnesses has hampered the investigation.
The man received serious injuries to the head during riots in the Short Strand area of Belfast on May 12 this year. Following allegations reported in the media that he may have been beaten by the police or have been hit by a plastic baton round, the PSNI asked the Police Ombudsman's Office to investigate.
Its Executive Director, Mr David Wood, said the investigation was painstaking in its search for evidence as to how the man came about his injuries. He said all effective lines of enquiry were pursued and no evidence was available to show that a police officer had in anyway been responsible for the injuries:
"The individual does not know how he was hurt and has not made a statement to us saying he thinks the police may have been responsible. Video evidence shows us that there were a lot of people near the man just after he was injured, but either those people did not see what happened or chose not to tell us what they saw.
"This investigation illustrates just how important the co-operation of complainants and the community is in helping us get to the truth of the allegations. This Office is evidence based. When we find evidence of police wrongdoing, we have and will continue to say so. Similarly when we do not find any evidence to support an allegation, as in this case, we will also say so."
Police Ombudsman investigators viewed both a police video of the unrest and an amateur video made available to them by people living in the area. While both confirm that baton rounds had not been fired at the time in question, neither video provided evidence of how the man was injured.
"At one stage the amateur footage shows him attempting to diffuse a confrontation between the police and members of the public. He was shown to be acting as a peacemaker, trying to calm a tense situation.
The video shows him in front of a police line as a barrage of missiles was being thrown over his head at police officers. The man did not have the protection of the shields the police officers had, and there is the possibility he was hit by one of these missiles.
But as the unrest develops the camera pans wildly and refocuses on another area. Neither video actually show the incident which gave rise to the injuries," explained Mr Wood.
Similarly, Police Ombudsman staff did not find anyone who actually saw what happened. They interviewed police officers and questioned ambulance personnel who attended the scene. They also appealed to anyone who was in the area at the time and who saw what happened to come forward:
"Our senior staff, including the Police Ombudsman herself, attended a meeting in the Short Strand in the hope that if anyone had information they would come forward. We also delivered letters to 250 householders in the area but no one, including the person who made the original phone call to the Ambulance Service, came forward to say they had seen what had happened," said Mr Wood.
The Report has been forwarded to the Secretary of State, the Chief Constable and to the Policing Board.