POLICE INVESTIGATING THE murder of PSNI constable Ronan Kerr in April 2011 are carrying out searches in the North and northwest England today.

Detectives from the PSNI’s serious crime branch are being assisted by police officers in Cumbria and the North West Counter Terrorism Unit in England as they conduct searches in the Omagh and Cumbria areas.

“The search activity is in connection with the wider investigation into the murder of PSNI Constable Ronan Kerr in April 2011 and linked incidents,” the PSNI said in a statement this morning.

PSNI constable Kerr was killed when booby-trap bomb went off after he got into his car at Highfield Close in Omagh on Saturday, 2 April 2011.

As a Catholic and member of the GAA Kerr was seen as a symbol of Northern Ireland’s new police service but was the second officer to be murdered since the formation of the police service in 2001.

Police made a fresh appeal for information about his murder earlier this year.

To date there have been 10 arrests as part of the investigation, with one person charged relating to a linked incident.

Police have said previously that a comprehensive forensic strategy is being pursued, involving hundreds of items which are being examined at labs in the North, Britain and the United States.