Image copyright Pacemaker Image caption The Supreme Court said that the PSNI had "misconstrued their legal powers to stop parades"

A Belfast resident has won an appeal at the Supreme Court that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) was wrong to allow union flag protests.

There were loyalist protests across Northern Ireland after Belfast City Council ruled in 2012 not to fly the Union flag at the City Hall every day of the year.

A High Court judge in Belfast ruled in 2014 that the PSNI should not have facilitated illegal parades.

The ruling was quashed after an appeal.

However, the Supreme Court, the UK's highest court, unanimously overturned that decision and said that the PSNI "misconstrued their legal powers to stop parades".

It added that the police had an "inescapable duty to prevent, where possible, what were plainly illegal parades from taking place".

The PSNI said it had received the judgement and would "study it carefully".

"The protracted period of protests, and associated disorder, was a challenging time for everyone in Northern Ireland," the police said.

"Throughout the months of the flag protests the overriding concern of police was always the safety of all communities and the protection of life."

Legal duty

The council's decision on the union flag on 3 December 2012 was the catalyst for a long campaign of street protests, some of which ended in violence.

More than 100 PSNI officers were injured and more than 500 people have since been charged or reported in connection with the protests.

The case was taken to the Supreme Court by a resident from Belfast's Short Strand area, who cannot be named to protect his safety.

Image copyright AFP Image caption There were protests in December 2012 after Belfast City Council decided not to fly the union flag at City Hall every day of the year

The flag protests included a weekly parade between east Belfast and Belfast's City Hall, which passed the Short Strand.

The resident had claimed that the PSNI had failed in its legal duty to stop the parades.

The PSNI had argued that it did not have the legal powers to stop the parades, and warned that doing so might have made the situation worse.

The original claim by the resident was upheld by the High Court who said that the PSNI had not understood the full scope of its powers.

Criminal offence

In its full judgement, the Supreme Court agreed with the High Court and said it was "right to conclude that the police laboured under a misapprehension as to the extent of their powers".

Parades in Northern Ireland are managed by the Parades Commission. The Supreme Court noted that participation in a parade that has not been notified to the commission is a criminal offence.

The Supreme Court said: "The police failed to recognise that the integrity of that system depended on the enforcement of the requirement to notify an intention to hold a parade.

"It is the police, not the Parades Commission, who have the responsibility for preventing un-notified parades from taking place."

High level of compliance

In a statement, the Parades Commission noted that "as confirmed in the judgment, the commission has no powers regarding parades which have not been notified.

"Since the flag protests, there has been an extremely high level of compliance with the requirement to notify parades to the police and commission.

"This almost full compliance with the requirement to notify parades provides a high level of assurance to the commission, local communities, the general public and other authorities about how parading events should proceed".

The Northern Ireland Policing Board, which oversees the work of the PSNI, said its members would have an opportunity to question the chief constable about the Supreme Court judgement at its next meeting, on 2 Thursday.