Tony Deery was arrested from his home in the Creggan Estate, Derry City on Tuesday 10 January 2012 and detained at Strand Road PSNI Station. The reason given for his arrest was that he was alleged to have been involved in the arson of Seán Dolan’s GAC Clubhouse on 28 December 2011.

Mr Deery’s solicitor Peter Madden issued the following statement on his client’s behalf:

“Mr Deery was arrested at 10.30am on 10 January and detained for approximately seven hours, before being released on police bail. Police conducted two taped interviews, lasting a total of 47 minutes, with my client and at no stage did they put a single shred of evidence to him connecting him with the fire at Seán Dolan’s GAC Clubhouse.

The PSNI also refused to provide any details of the allegations against him, or to provide any information linking him to the fire.

Mr Deery categorically denies any involvement in the attack on Seán Dolan’s clubhouse. Mr Deery was in Donegal on the evening of 27 December, and CCTV of this has been obtained. At the time of the fire, in the early hours of 28 December, Mr Deery was at the Altnagelvin Hospital and the PSNI have confirmed that CCTV footage exists and have been directed to obtain a copy.

During Mr Deery’s arrest, the PSNI removed a number of personal items from his home including computer equipment and DVDs of private family occasions. These items could not conceivably be relevant to the purported reasons given for my client’s arrest. Indeed much of the time spent in the interviews dealt with intrusive and irrelevant questions about these private family items.

We will be issuing legal proceedings on behalf of Mr. Deery against the PSNI in due course.”