Paisley's claims were flatly rejected by Reavey and by the only survivor of the massacre, Alan Black. Susan McKay wrote in the "Irish Times" that, on hearing Paisley's accusations, Black went straight to the Reaveys' house and told Reavey that he knew he was innocent. The then Northern Ireland deputy first minister, the SDLP's Seamus Mallon, expressed outrage at Paisley's claims. Ronnie Flanagan, chief constable of the RUC, said there was "no evidence whatsoever" to connect Reavey with the massacre, and that no police file contained any such allegation.