Police to investigate Iris Robinson

Friday, 22 January 2010 12:00 AM

By politics.co.uk staff

The police will investigate Iris Robinson to see if her actions securing a £50,000 loan for her lover constituted a criminal offence.

The wife of first minister Peter Robinson and a Democratic Unionist party (DUP) MP in her own right is currently undergoing psychiatric care after she attempted suicide when confessing the affair to her husband.

Mr Robinson has stepped down as first minister for six weeks while he clears his name.

Mrs Robinson was expelled from the DUP over the controversy and has stepped down as an MP.

The organised crime branch of the police service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) will conduct the investigation, but insists its "remit is to investigate potential criminality, nothing else".

The loan was secured from two donors so her 19-year-old lover, Kirk McCambley, could set up a café.

She is alleged to have kept £5,000 for herself, but political pressure comes mainly from the fact she failed to declare an interest.

Her husband faces accusations that he failed to report the set-up when he discovered it, although he is understood to have told her to pay the money back.

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