\n<\/p>\n
A lawyer for Boutcher said the PSNI assessment was that all “lawful and proportionate options” to facilitate the parade had been “exhausted”.<\/p>\n
Any attempt to police it “would have involved substantial public order intervention”.<\/p>\n
He said Boutcher believed this would have carried an “unacceptable risk” of serious and prolonged disorder, with “a wider contagion effect”.<\/p>\n
The request for Sir Chris to intervene had been based on operational policing considerations and is “devoid of any public law wrong”.<\/p>\n
The lawyer said: “He (Boutcher) was putting the situation in the Secretary of State’s hands.”<\/p>\n
He said Boutcher, when pointing out the consequences for Stormont and the peace process, had been making an “observation”.<\/p>\n
“No-one is saying he woke up one morning and imagined all these potential consequences.<\/p>\n
“These are real life consequences everybody was thinking of.”<\/p>\n
A lawyer for Sir Chris later introduced another element of the police intelligence assessment.<\/p>\n
He told the court that it stated that loyalist paramilitaries were “depicting signs of frustration” and that it was “highly likely” that increasing numbers of loyalists would attend the Portadown area.<\/p>\n
The intelligence stated “disorder at Drumcree Church remained a possibility”.<\/p>\n
The lawyer added: “Both sides were converging on the area.”<\/p>\n