Tributes paid to former RUC chief constable

Posted By: February 23, 2017

Claire Simpson. Irish News. Belfast. Thursday, February 23, 1017

FORMER RUC chief constable Kenneth Newman has died at the age of 90.

Sir Kenneth, pictured, from Sussex, initially served as deputy chief constable from 1973 before he was promoted to chief constable in 1976. He was knighted in 1978 for his work with the RUC. He left the force in 1980.

A former member of the RAF, in the late 1940s he served in the Palestine Police Force when the territory was under British administration and later transferred to the Metropolitan Police in London.

During this time at the RUC he introduced the policy of Ulsterisation, a strategy aimed at giving the police a greater security role.

After he left the force in 1980, he became inspector of constabulary for England and Wales.

In 2014 a Police Ombudsman’s report found that Sir Kenneth “quite probably” knew about a threat to Catholic RUC sergeant Joseph Campbell, shot dead by loyalists in Cushendall, Co Antrim, in February 1977, but failed to act.

Sir Kenneth died on February 4.