A police investigation into allegedly inappropriate online messages sent by a Sinn Féin councillor to a minor has found that “no criminal offences were detected”.
Reports concerning JJ Magee (61) were made to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in June, it has emerged.
Mr Magee, who denies the allegations, has been suspended from the party.
In a statement on Monday, the PSNI confirmed it carried out a review after receiving a report regarding inappropriate messages five months ago.
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“Safeguarding assessments and engagement with other statutory bodies were conducted at that time,” a spokesman added.
Mr Magee has served as a Belfast City councillor since 2014, representing the Oldpark area in the north of the city.
On Sunday evening, Sinn Féin chairman Declan Kearney said that his suspension was made “without prejudice” and the party whip had also been removed from him.
Details were forwarded to social services and the PSNI in compliance with the party’s child safeguarding policy, Mr Kearney added.
The chief executive of Belfast City Council was also notified.
[ Profile: JJ Magee, Sinn FéinOpens in new window ]
Lawyers acting for Mr Magee said he “absolutely” denied any allegation of inappropriate conduct.
KRW Law said their client had lodged a 12,000-word, 38-page rebuttal to a complaint made to the local government Ombudsman in Northern Ireland.
The complaint against him was “malicious, selective and edits significant portions of messages sent and received over a three-month period”, the legal firm said.
“The complainant acknowledges that she has been advised by unknown and unnamed adviser(s) in the preparation of her complaint.
“Our client asserts that there is not a single line in any message sent by him which could be considered to be inappropriate.
“Our client looks forward to being exonerated and having his good name restored.”
Sinn Féin declined to make any further comment on Monday, stating that the allegation is “under active investigation by the appropriate authorities”.
The office of the Northern Ireland Local Government Commissioner for Standards confirmed it had received a report of a potential breach of the code of conduct and said that “the allegation is now under investigation”.
The KRW Law statement also said that Mr Magee did not alert Sinn Féin to the complaint as he believed there was no substance to it and that it would be quickly resolved once all the facts were provided.
His suspension is the latest in a string of controversies to have hit the party over the past six weeks.
Concerns about the Sinn Féin leadership’s handling of child safeguarding crises have dominated the news agenda on either side of the Border.
Stormont Opposition leader, SDLP MLA Matthew O’Toole, said the Magee case “highlights the need for continued transparency”.
“I wouldn’t want to comment on the specifics of this case, the allegations are being contested and the councillor in question has a right to have that process respected until there is a conclusion,” he said.
“But when there is more detail and in the context of them being allegations, I still think it is worth us understanding from Sinn Féin when precisely they were corporately made aware about this matter.
“Given the context of how information is shared within Sinn Féin and whether it is promptly and transparently dealt with — a concern that has repeatedly come up — I think that the legitimate question to ask is, did anyone else in the party know about this allegation and investigation by the local government Ombudsman when it was first made?”
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