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UTV Insight – In the name of the State

Ombudsman’s report revealed

Collusion is not an illusionA loyalist paramilitary gang was involved in up to 15 murders while working as police informers, a damning report has revealed.

The Ulster Volunteer Force members, based in north Belfast, were protected by Special Branch handlers to ensure they escaped prosecution, with vital intelligence withheld from detectives investigating the killings, a three- year inquiry found.

The man at the centre of Police Ombudsman Nuala O`Loan`s examination of the scandal, identified in her 160-page report only as Informant No 1 but known to be ex-terror chief Mark Haddock, was paid at least £79,840 during the period under investigation from 1991 to 2003.

The Ombudsman concluded that her investigation had established collusion between certain officers within Special Branch and the UVF team based in the city`s Mount Vernon district.

Her staff identified intelligence within the policing system, most of which was graded by police as reliable and probably true and corroborated by other sources, which linked the informants to the murders of 10 people.

They were also associated with another 72 crimes, including 10 attempted murders, 10 punishment shootings, 13 punishment attacks, a bombing in Monaghan in the Irish Republic, and 17 instances of drug dealing as well as additional criminal damage, extortion and intimidation.

The Police Ombudsman`s investigators also identified less significant and reliable intelligence linking the UVF men to an additional five murders.

The chilling revelations are massively damaging for policing in Northern Ireland, and deal a shattering blow to the reputation of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Mrs O`Loan said: “It would be easy to blame the junior officers` conduct in dealing with various informants and indeed they are not blameless.

“However, they could not have operated as they did without the knowledge and support at the highest level of the RUC and the PSNI.”

The investigation was the most complex ever undertaken by the Ombudsman, with more than 100 serving and retired police officers interviewed, 24 of them under caution.

Police computer systems were examined and more than 10,000 items of police documentation recovered, including material held within intelligence systems, on personal records, in police journals, in crime files and from other sources.

Mrs O`Loan`s inquiry began by examining the murder of Raymond McCord Junior, 22, a former RAF man found beaten to death in a quarry on the northern outskirts of Belfast in November 1997.

Information held by police, and corroborated by other sources, indicates that Haddock, who was in prison at the time, ordered his murder and that another man, out on leave from jail, carried it out, the report found.

The suspects were later arrested, questioned and released without charge.

The Ombudsman`s staff have identified a series of failures with the murder investigation which may have significantly reduced the chances of anyone ever being prosecuted, including a failure to seize a suspect`s clothing from prison and the destruction of exhibits such as the car believed to have been used in the attack.

As Mrs O`Loan`s inquiry widened out to include a catalogue of killings, her investigators looked at the files on the murder of Peter McTasney in Belfast in February 1991.

The report revealed that Informant No 1, Haddock, was arrested and questioned a total of 19 times. His handlers carried out the main interviews.

One of those handlers said they “babysat” him through the interview and that notes were completed which did not reflect what happened in the interview, the Ombudsman found.

A combined file for the McTasney murder and an earlier attempted killing was prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions and two men later convicted.

But Special Branch, with the agreement of a Deputy Assistant Chief Constable, did not disclose to the DPP the involvement of a police agent, the report alleged.

Another of the UVF murders under scrutiny, that of Catholic taxi driver Sharon McKenna who was shot dead in January 1993, found that Special Branch authorised the arrest of Informant No 1.

He was detained for six days and interviewed 37 times, with his handler carrying out some of the questioning, the Ombudsman`s dossier said.

Another of those present told her investigators that he “felt like a gooseberry” sitting in on the interviews as he knew Informant No 1 was a police source and would say nothing of relevance in front of him.

Again the suspect was released without charge.

Within weeks, Haddock`s monthly retainer was increased from £100 to £160, even though he was a main suspect in the investigation, the report revealed.

During their investigation into the double murder of Gary Convie and Eamon Fox, who were shot dead on a Belfast building site in May 1994, the Ombudsman`s staff established that the gunman was said to have a goatee beard.

When Informant No 1 was arrested he had such a beard but was allowed to shave it off while in custody, the report alleged.

No identity parade was held and once again the suspect was released without charge.

As part of the inquiry, investigators also examined terrorist attacks below in the southof Ireland, including a planned bomb strike in Dublin where Informant No 1 gave police information which helped ensure the attack was aborted.

Special Branch officers were instructed not to record the details of this planned bombing, the report said.

But within two weeks, in March 1997, Sinn Fein officers in Monaghan were bombed.

Intelligence held by police implicates police informants, including Haddock.

None of this information was passed to the Gardai, the Ombudsman established.

Utv Insight – In the name of the State

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René Querin

Di professione grafico e web designer, sono appassionato di trekking e innamorato dell'Irlanda e della sua storia. Insieme ad Andrea Varacalli ho creato e gestisco Les Enfants Terribles.

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