"It has always been made clear that primary in our considerations are the feelings of the bereaved families, the injured, their families and other victims of the Omagh atrocity.
"It is of critical importance that responses to them are utterly accurate and factually based. What we are in possession of (we believed provided in confidence) is a draft report with a request for comment on the factual accuracy.
"We consider this report contains so many significant factual inaccuracies, unwarranted assumptions, misunderstandings and material omissions that a request has been made to the Ombudsman’s office for a reasonable period of time to respond in detail with what we see as the serious deficiencies in this report.
"Until we have had reasonable time to present to the Ombudsman’s office the opportunity to correct the report, it is considered inappropriate to comment on what was supposed to have been a confidentially provided document, other than to say it is absolutely rejected that either information provided by an agent, codenamed Fulton, or an anonymous call on August 4 1998, could have led to the prevention of the atrocity.
"The Chief Constable is in discussion with Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary to determine the most effective way that external investigative expertise can best be applied to reassure victims that, as always promised, no stone will be left unturned in this investigation which continues to be very much alive."