As detectives continue to investigate allegations of child sex abuse in Fermanagh a Democratic Unionist MP has claimed “arrests are imminent” after a senior police officer told the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee that the PSNI would not “be pushed by the media” to reveal details.

Seven months after The Impartial Reporter first began its long-running investigation into allegations of child sex abuse across the county the PSNI continues to refuse to confirm if officers have questioned or arrested any of the 60 plus alleged abusers whose names have been given to this newspaper by over 60 alleged victims.

During the meeting at Westminster DUP MP Ian Paisley challenged PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne and PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Barbara Gray to provide an update, saying he was raising the issue because Sinn Fein’s MP for the area doesn’t “bother turning up so it is important that those people get representation”.

He said: “The Impartial Reporter has for the last seven months run a series of very important stories on a litany of sex abuse cases. No one has yet been arrested in those cases”.

Mr. Paisley referred to last week’s story on allegations that children as young as 12 from the former Brindley House care home in Killadeas were sexually abused by a criminal gang.

“The most recent story they ran was about children and young people abused from a particular home, sold into the sex trade, by a gang”.

He added: “The fact that there have been no arrests, absolutely nothing has happened as a result of that, publicly anyway that we are aware of, are you able to update us on that? Have you any leads? Is that a cross Border crime? Is this being run by overseas interest? Or is it being run by very nasty local people?”

In response, Mr. Byrne told the committee: “Firstly I know it is a very important issue locally because that has been fed in a number of times about effectively the campaign that is being run single-handily by the reporter. I am aware there is an investigation ongoing”.

PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Barbara Gray explained that the investigation is being led by the Public Protection Branch and said the process “is absolutely moving forward”.

“We are seeking to ensure this a victims-centred investigation. Witnesses have been interviewed by police. Those interviews have had to take place with, as you would expect, the most suitably trained officers, specially trained officers, to deal with vulnerable victims.

“Some of those have been quite lengthy and they have had to be to provide the absolutely essential support for the victims,” he said.

Ms Gray said she was “content” that the PSNI is “moving forward” with the investigation.

“We have had to do those at the investigative pace and victims-centred and not, I suppose necessarily be pushed by the media around this, to ensure we have best evidence before we move to the point of executive action which should it be arrest and questioning phase”.

Afterwards, Mr. Paisley told this newspaper: “After months of silence locally this case gets national mention in Parliament. No hiding place for abusers.”

In a statement a PSNI spokeswoman said: “As I’m sure you know already from other police investigations, we do not generally discuss the detail of our ongoing enquires to protect the integrity of our investigations and would not comment on whether a person had been questioned or not.

“At this point in time our investigations into historical child sexual abuse in County Fermanagh are actively ongoing and therefore it would not be appropriate to comment further”.