POLICE IN DERRY have apologised to a couple for ruining their wedding day after arresting the bride and bridegroom on the – mistaken – assumption that their union was a sham.

The police arrested Neil McIlwee and his fiancee Yanan Sun – who is four month’s pregnant with his child – and brought them to the station moments before they were due to be married. The couple were separated, forced to wear forensic clothing and held for five hours the BBC reports. The pair were released only after their solicitor intervened.

PSNI Chief Inspector Jon Burrows apologised to the couple today, saying that the police had received an anonymous tip-off that the couple were planning a sham wedding. However McIlwee has rejected the apology, saying: “Apologies won’t give us our day back. It won’t make everything better,” UTV reports.

McIlwee added: “It just doesn’t add up. Something on that scale based on an anonymous letter and some paperwork faxed through about two hours before the wedding – it just doesn’t happen like that.”

The couple were married the following day.