POLICE Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable Simon Byrne faces growing pressure, with both rank-and-file officers and civilian staff considering confidence votes in his leadership.

The embattled chief constable insisted he would not resign following a marathon session of his oversight body, the Policing Board, on Thursday.

The latest controversy to hit the force erupted earlier this week when High Court judge Mr Justice Scoffield ruled that two junior officers were unlawfully disciplined for an arrest made at a Troubles commemoration event in 2021.

Mr Byrne initially said he accepted the judgement, but on Thursday he indicated that an appeal was being considered and said it was inappropriate to make any further comment.

Police Federation for Northern Ireland chairman Liam Kelly expressed “disbelief and anger” at the statement.

He said: “This has infuriated and antagonised rank-and-file officers further and once again the two officers at the centre of the case are being treated disdainfully.

“It is hugely damaging to officer morale and confidence and has to be condemned.”

The Police Federation has called an extraordinary meeting of its executive central committee for next Wednesday and it said a confidence vote may held on the PSNI leadership.

The Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (Nipsa), which represents a number of civilian police staff, is also set to hold an extraordinary departmental committee meeting of police staff representatives next week, during which it will assessed whether there is demand for a confidence vote in Mr Byrne.

Nipsa official Tracy Godfrey said that she feels it is likely that police staff colleagues will want such a vote.

She told BBC Radio Ulster: “I think people have just come to the end of the road with how the organisation is being treated. They have just had enough.

“It’s been one disaster after another. The data breach after being told for many years by the Department of Justice that police staff aren’t under the same kind of threat as police officers when we clearly are and always have been.

“The data breach comes out and our names are on it. We are not weaponised like police officers, so we have no way of defending ourselves if someone comes knocking on our door.”

The incident which the High Court ruled on occurred on Ormeau Road in Belfast in February 2021 during a service marking the anniversary of the February 1992 Sean Graham bookmakers attack, in which five people were murdered.

The two officers faced action in 2021 after the arrest of Mark Sykes, a survivor of a loyalist gun attack on the bookmakers in south Belfast.

The incident unfolded when police challenged people attending a memorial event amid suspicions that the size of the public gathering breached coronavirus regulations.

Mr Sykes was handcuffed and arrested amid chaotic exchanges captured on social media.

The incident triggered a major controversy at the time and sparked criticism of Mr Byrne.

He apologised for his force’s handling of the event at the time and it was announced that one officer was to be suspended and one repositioned.

This week’s court ruling has heaped further pressure on Mr Byrne, who was already facing questions about his future after a major data blunder led to personal details of officers entering the public domain and getting into the hands of dissident republicans.