Republicans picket meeting

Mary McCrea vowed to attend DPP meeting

The first meeting of a County Tyrone district policing partnership had to be been adjourned twice because of protests from dissident republicans.

The meeting of the Strabane board was disrupted on Wednesday by a group of about 30 people representing the 32 County Sovereignty Committee carrying tricolours and placards.

Before the meeting got under way, around 50 Sinn Fein supporters staged a peaceful demonstration.

Earlier on Wednesday, an independent member of the DPP said she would not be intimidated despite having a hoax bomb left outside her home.

Army bomb experts carried out a controlled explosion on the suspect package at the home of Mary McCrea in Sion Mills.

The area was cordoned off and a number of houses were evacuated after the package was discovered at about 0800 BST.

Pledge to continue

The 51-year-old bank employee said she would not be intimidated out of Strabane district policing partnership.

"It is something that is not going to deter me," she said.

"I thought the days of the faceless men had gone - they're still here but they're not going to deter me, and the community is completely behind me."

It is the latest in a series of attacks and threats to members of policing partnerships across Northern Ireland which have resulted in three members resigning.

The chairman of Strabane DPP Tom McBride said this latest attack would reinforce the determination of members to carry on with their work.

SDLP councillor Eugene McMenamin condemned Sinn Fein's plans to picket the meeting of the Strabane board.

Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness condemned as "mindless morons" those who were behind the intimidation of DPP members west of the Bann.

He also condemned the hoax bomb attacks at Sion Mills however, he refused to call off his party's protest over policing in Strabane.

The Chief Constable, Huge Orde, has said the main threat was from dissident republicans, but police had intelligence that mainstream republicans were involved at a lower level.

Community policing

District policing partnerships were set up across Northern Ireland under reforms initiated by a commission headed by former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten and implemented by the government.

In recent weeks, incidents have included an attack on a car belonging to a DPP member in Strabane and a hoax bomb outside the home of a DPP chairman in Tyrone.

District policing partnerships are made up of councillors and members of the local community, who work alongside the Police Service of Northern Ireland's 29 District Command Units in trying to meet local community policing needs.

The Northern Ireland Policing Board handles some of the most sensitive issues facing policing and holds the chief constable and his senior officers to account.

Former assembly members and independent nominees serve on the board whose headquarters are in Belfast.

Sinn Fein has boycotted the new structures, insisting the government's policing reforms need to go further if they are ever going to participate.