Everyone accepts that police pursuing murder investigations, particularly when paramilitary organisations are involved, have an enormous responsibility to track down those responsible and deliver convictions. However, there can be no justification for detectives losing sight of their primary objectives, and concentrating their attentions on reporters acting in the public interest rather than individuals who are actually responsible for dreadful crimes. Both the British security service MI5 and the PSNI have been ordered to pay damages of £10,000 each to Mr Kearney for illegally accessing his phone data when he was working for the BBC in Belfast. Mr Kearney, writing on the RTÉ website yesterday, said he was shocked to discover that the PSNI had built up an intelligence profile not only on him but also on members of his immediate family. PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has offered a “sincere apology” to Mr Kearney following the ruling, and said that significant changes to practice and policy had been made.