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Alex McCrory: “Ho detto agli sbirri: meglio un ergastolo che lavorare per voi”

‘I told spooks — I’d rather serve a life sentence in prison than work for you’

Suzanne Breen, Sunday World

MI5 | SpooksA leading dissident republican last night sent a defiant message to MI5 –’I’d rather serve a life sentence in prison than work for you.’

Ex-IRA prisoner Alex McCrory returned to Grosvenor Road police station where less than a week ago, spooks dramatically entered his cell and tried to recruit him when he was under arrest.

He told the Sunday World how MI5 warned him that, without their help, he could face another lengthy jail sentence.

And he revealed how his 15-year-old son, who has no involvement with republicanism, was also arrested and held by cops at the same time in what he claims was a deliberate attempt to apply pressure to make him turn tout.

McCrory, from West Belfast, served 14 years in the H-blocks for the Provisional IRA. He was one of the youngest ever blanketmen, joining the dirty protest when he was just 17.

The veteran republican refused point-blank to have any dealings with the three spooks who approached him on Monday night, ordering them to “get the f**k out of my cell”.

McCrory said: “No amount of money MI5 could pay, nothing they could say or do, could ever get me to work for them. They told me their offer was just between me and them and not to do anything silly like go to the press.

“I’m speaking out because spooks skulk in the shadows, totally unaccountable. It’s time to flush them out. There’s no shame in being approached by MI5 – the shame is in working for them.”

The republican revealed how MI5 had intensified their recruitment drive. Dozens of republicans and their friends were approached every week but most were “too embarrassed” to go public.

The entire encounter in Grosvenor Road was captured on the barracks’ internal CCTV system. McCrory’s solicitor, Kevin Winters, has written to the PSNI asking for the tapes.

Winters said: “The law allows MI5 to try to recruit people. What we object to is sinister developments like this where children are used to pressurise parents.”

The lawyer has lodged a complaint with the Chief Constable and the Police Ombudsman.

One of the MI5 trio – who uses the name Harry – has repeatedly tried to recruit McCrory, ringing him at home and on his mobile. The republican logged every approach with his solicitor and even put Harry’s phone number on the internet.

The latest attempt came after McCrory was arrested by police in connection with a local, non-political dispute in the Falls Road area. He was interrogated by detectives about allegedly making threats during the incident.

McCrory said: “After police had questioned me, two plain-clothes guys walked into my cell. Another stood outside. I knew immediately they were MI5. I said ‘get the f**k out’.

“They told me to calm down. I pushed past them and told the civilian guard in the corridor these men had entered my cell against my will. He said everything was being recorded on CCTV.”

McCrory returned to his cell and sat on the mattress. He picked up an autobiography of an ex-SAS man which was there and started reading it. “This annoyed the spooks because I wouldn’t even look at them,” he said.

The intelligence officers, one of whom was ‘Harry’, referred to Massereene and Constable Ronan Kerr’s murder. “They said compared to the Provisional IRA campaign, dissident activity was futile,” McCrory revealed.

“They asked why an old school republican like me was wasting time with ‘these dissidents’. They told me I’d eventually come a cropper.” The spooks claimed legendary republican heroes like Bobby Sands and Brendan Hughes were turning in their graves in horror at dissident attacks.

McCrory saod the MI5 men claimed they wanted to “build a relationship” which could benefit both him and them: “They said I could be jailed for up to seven years in connection with the charges I was being questioned about.

“They remarked it had been my 50th birthday a few weeks earlier and I was too old to go back to jail. They said they’d friends in high places who could make my current problems disappear if I co-operated.

“They said my 15-year-old son was now in trouble with the police and surely I didn’t want him to end up like I’d done, spending years in jail.” As they left McCrory’s cell, the spooks told him they’d spend the night in the police station – in case he changed his mind about working for them before he was charged the next morning.

McCrory appeared in Belfast Magistrates Court on Tuesday charged with making threats. He is strongly denying the charges. His son was released from custody but a file has been sent to the PPS.

McCrory, who comes from a well-known republican family, became disillusioned with Sinn Féin’s political strategy and support for the PSNI in recent years.

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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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