Published Tuesday, 02 November 2010
The confirmation came as the PSNI failed in an unprecedented legal bid to be allowed to view a television documentary into events surrounding the blasts before it is broadcast.
In one of the worst atrocities committed during the Northern Ireland conflict, nine people were killed in bomb attacks on the Co Derry village in July 1972.
Earlier this year, a Police Ombudsman report found senior RUC officers conspired with the government and the Catholic Church to protect a Catholic priest suspected over the attack.
The alleged collusion was to move Fr James Chesney, who died in 1980, to a parish in the Irish Republic.
Ahead of the BBC's planned Spotlight programme into the Claudy bombing, lawyers for the Chief Constable sought a last-minute High Court injunction.
They wanted a senior detective to be permitted to view the documentary before it was screened to decide whether it could amount to contempt of court, interfere with the administration of justice, or breach confidentiality.
Alternatively, counsel for the PSNI sought to restrain broadcast until access could be gained to the programme.
One concern outlined was that suspects or witnesses in the investigation could be named in the documentary.
Barrister David Dunlop said the police investigation into the bombing remains active, and disclosed that a Chief Superintendent went to the USA last Friday as part of their inquiries.
He told the court: "As recently as last week a suspect was interviewed by a police officer from this jurisdiction travelling to America and doing that in conjunction with the FBI."
Mr Dunlop stressed that rather than seeking to restrain publication, the PSNI merely wanted to gain access to the material.
He argued that if the programme contained anything which could hamper the investigation "the horse would have bolted" after broadcast.
Brett Lockhart QC, for the BBC, insisted his client took its duties and responsibilities as a public broadcaster "extremely seriously".
He submitted: "If the court sought, for the first time ever in this novel application to give coercive relief it would essentially send a chilling effect to anyone involved in investigative journalism."
The judge hearing the case, Mr Justice Treacy, pointed out that the legal bid was being mounted on the basis of pure speculation about the programme's contents.
He said: "Nobody has ever attempted to do this before and no authority has been put before the court anywhere in the UK or indeed elsewhere to support this."
He described it as an unprecedented application which, if it had succeeded, would have significantly extended the boundaries of existing case law.
Dismissing it, Mr Justice Treacy added: "I do not consider that there is sufficient or indeed any material before the court which would justify the court in granting the injunction sought."