John Caldwell: 400,000 hours of CCTV footage seized in shot detective case

An estimated 400,000 hours of CCTV footage has been seized for analysis in the hunt for those involved in the shooting of a Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) detective.

The investigation into who shot Det Ch Insp John Caldwell is one of Northern Ireland's biggest in recent times.

He was attacked in February by two gunmen as he coached youth football while off-duty in Omagh, County Tyrone.

The 48-year-old's young son was at his side when he was ambushed.

The CCTV footage has been obtained from 750 cameras located between Belfast and Omagh.

Police believe dissident republican group the New IRA may have acted with an organised crime gang to carry out the attack.

Det Ch Insp Caldwell is in regular contact with the team investigating his shooting and there is an "added determination" to catch those responsible because he is a colleague.

Det Ch Supt Eamonn Corrigan, who is leading the attempted murder inquiry, said: "We are lucky John didn't die.

"He is making a good recovery but it is going to be a long road."

Det Ch Supt Corrigan said the wounded officer, who was discharged from hospital in April, has given investigators his account of the shooting.

He added the investigation had made "significant progress", but gave no further details.

It is an overwhelming amount of footage that has been seized - 16,000 days viewing if one person was to watch it from beginning to end.

Clearly the police have seized a lot more material than they may ultimately need because they want to have it before it is wiped or deleted.

The scale of the task is huge. What we can't really quantify is the scale of progress and whether or not they have had a significant breakthrough.

I left the CCTV viewing suite with the overriding impression that this is a resource hungry investigation.

It is clearly going to take a long time to build a case or indeed cases given the number of people the PSNI believe were involved.

To date, 15 people have been arrested and there have been 40 searches of premises and land.

More than 340 witnesses have been interviewed so far.

Two Ford Fiesta cars used in the attack had been bought about 70 miles away, in Glengormley and Ballyclare, County Antrim, weeks prior to be used in the shooting.

They were found burned out following the attack.

Attempting to trace their movements has meant obtaining footage from hundreds of cameras spread over a large area.

Detectives are poring over the material in several viewing rooms within a Belfast police base.

"All the detectives working on the case know the importance of CCTV and the fact that a 15 or 20-second piece of footage could be crucial in building a case," said Det Ch Supt Corrigan.

"An attack of this nature is carried out by multiple people who are organised.

"We are looking for movements of people and vehicles over time. It is time consuming and a lot of patience is required," he added.

The New IRA has admitted responsibility for the attack, but police believe a crime gang may have aided it.

Det Ch Insp Caldwell has run investigations into both paramilitary groups and organised crime gangs.

"Whether these people are members of a terrorist organisation or an organised crime organisation, this has been an attack on a serving police officer at the behest of the New IRA," Det Ch Supt Corrigan said.

"How they carry out their operations and support them logistically is not for me to decide.

"I will follow the evidence and bring people who are responsible before the courts."