TRIDENT whistleblower William McNeilly has handed himself in to police as a group of MSPs backed a motion praising his “courageous actions”.
The Royal Navy submariner from Northern Ireland had been on the run after publishing an 18-page report highlighting alleged safety issues surrounding the Trident submarine fleet.
He handed himself into police in Edinburgh late on Monday and is now being held by Royal Navy police.
The navy engineer was moving from country to country in a bid to evade the police but decided to hand himself in, declaring that he had “finally achieved what he set out to do”.
In Holyrood a group of 18 MSPs, led by the SNP’s Bill Kidd, supported a motion praising McNeilly and calling for the MoD to take the report very seriously.
The MSPs “commended” the actions of the whistleblower, saying he had put “concern for the safety of the public above concerns for his own future”.
The report pointed out 30 alleged safety and security flaws at the Clyde Naval Base as well as aboard the Trident submarines.
A Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesman said that McNeilly would face consequences for being absent without leave.
On a message left on his Facebook, McNeilly said that Trident was a “broken system”, adding: “If you continue to defend it sooner or later more truth will come out or a catastrophe will happen.”
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