semtex

Beckett and Myer- same old story

The Police Ombudsman has recently released a report on three killings; that of Henry Babington on 4th October 1989 and those of Constables Beckett and Myer on 30th  June 1990.

I am particularly interested in the latter incident, it coming 24 days after the murders of my parents.

Readers of my blog will know that my special interest is the activities [or lack thereof] of senior RUC officers, Special Branch personnel [sometimes described as a force within a force] the Army and the Security Service, in respect of the murders.

Some of the striking features of my parents’ killings were that:

  1. There was no public appeal for witnesses or information, either immediately or at any time,
  2. There was no round-up of suspects, except for a character called Braniff,
  3. There was only a perfunctory search at the scene, missing the magnet,
  4. The fragments of the bomb were disposed of, and 
  5. The file was put away in a cupboard months after the murders.

I was interested to see what assessment would be made of the constables’ murders, coming in much the same time frame.

There is an obvious difference , in that their killings took place in broad daylight in the city centre. No matter. 

This is what the Ombudsman had to say:

“Having gathered and reviewed substantial documentation, the Police Ombudsman said the RUC investigation was “well resourced, well managed and conducted without any delay.”

It raised 338 investigative actions, recorded over 420 witness statements, and received over 190 messages. These were part of a police investigation that incorporated witness, forensic, intelligence, and suspect enquiries.

The Senior Investigating Officer’s (SIO) policy log, internal reports and briefings demonstrated that he viewed forensics as integral to his investigation and considerable work was done on examining descriptions given of suspects and preparing for arrests. 

Initial information following the murders was promptly disseminated and the first arrests were made within hours of the murders. More followed, and there were a significant number of arrests.

However, there was insufficient evidence to charge any of these persons with offences linked to the murders.” 

The Ombudsman then moved to consider the interaction between investigators and Special Branch. The underlining is mine.

“Although it is clear from police documentation that the SIO sought all relevant intelligence from Special Branch and that he utilised this intelligence from the day of the murder, the Police Ombudsman has identified failures in the non-dissemination of intelligence by Special Branch.

Intelligence is not evidence but the Police Ombudsman believes that this intelligence could have been capable of supporting new and further lines of the enquiry for the SIO, had he been made aware of them. 

That revelation will hardly come as a shock to students of the Troubles killings. My opinion is that informers were protected at all stages of investigations by SB, even if there was a suspicion that they were committing offences well beyond any “agreement” with their handlers. Apologists, like Matchett, and others, refuse to even mention that participating informants existed.

“However, aside from early arrests, the available investigative material showed that where intelligence and information which named individuals allegedly involved in the murders was passed to the RUC investigation team, limited action was taken. This investigation has been unable to establish the reason for this.”

Next comes another old standard. The inexplicable and unexplained lack of activity and curiosity by SIOs. At that point in time, ‘ordinary’ detectives were constrained and controlled by SB. Arrests could not be made without their prior consent, that was a publicly known arrangement but who knows what other ‘informal’ arrangements were in place?

It is difficult to imagine that a succession of SIOs were incompetent, inept, and downright lazy, but perhaps they were?

This, as has been pointed out in relation to my father, was two of their own; compare that to the actions of police forces worldwide when a colleague is killed.

Then comes the most important finding.
“The Police Ombudsman considered the absence of action to be significant in one particular instance where information was provided by the military. Members of the military came forward to report that a person had told them that he witnessed the murders and knew the gunmen by name. They also provided a photograph. This did not result in any new lines of enquiry. “ 

“This information highlighted a person that potentially had very significant information pertaining to the identity of the gunmen. It is not known why the SIO did not generate any enquiries emanating from this intelligence,” said Mrs Anderson.

In any murder inquiry, when the SIO is presented with an eyewitness who knew the gunmen and saw the shooting – that is gold dust. The failure to follow this up is inexplicable, save for what I have written below.

The Police Ombudsman identified further missed investigative opportunities, including inaction after the planned arrest of two people on suspicion of the murders could not take place because the area had been designated out of bounds. The police records of the investigation do not provide a rationale for why there was no further attempt to speak to or arrest these individuals. 

“Out of bounds” was a euphemism. It covered a multitude of scenarios. Genuine threats against uniformed officers, on patrol; planned operations, or SB controlling the situation for their own ends.

In view of the available evidence and information, the Police Ombudsman concurs with the concerns of Constable Beckett’s daughter about police failures to pursue evidential opportunities.

“I am of the view that the investigative failings in this case are so significant that it was incapable of leading to the apprehension and prosecution of the perpetrators, and therefore, was not Article 2 compliant,” concluded Mrs Anderson.

In overall conclusion, Mrs Anderson said:

“I am of the view, based on the available intelligence reviewed by Police Ombudsman investigators, that there was no intelligence that, if acted upon, would have been capable of preventing the murders of Henry Babington and Constables Beckett and Meyer. 

“I believe that Henry Babington, Constable Beckett and Constable Meyer were the innocent victims of a campaign of terror mounted by republican paramilitaries. PIRA alone was responsible for the murders.” 

It may well be that PIRA was “responsible” for the murders. That is not the whole story. 

These murders were scouted, planned and as the late Ed Moloney said, were approved at the level of Martin McGuinness. It is inconceivable that one or more informers did not pick up this plan and convey it to their handlers.

Equally, it is borne out by the inexplicable failure of communication and the equally inexplicable indolence by the SIO, that other actors were at work. 

Was the person who supplied the identities of the killers well placed to know them? Was he a businessman in the area? Was he well known to police, perhaps as an informant relating to ‘ordinary’ crime? Is that why his intel vanished into thin air?

A failed and flawed investigation into two of their own. 

I do not know whether the present Chief Constable will apologise for these failings. Maybe he will say that in 1990, police were overwhelmed. Not something I recall being said at  the time.

The smart OxBridge boys and girls in the NIO will chalk this off as another One Day Wonder and get on with the task of governing the colony.

Meanwhile , I and others haven’t finished with the RUC, the PSNI or the Security Service. 

My condolences to the families of Henry Babington, Gary Myer and Harold Beckett. And especially to Constable Beckett’s daughter, who has campaigned so tirelessly.

Drew Harris – liar or incompetent?

On 6th June 1990 the Provisional IRA placed a bomb under the car of James Sefton, a RUC officer, retired three years. The subsequent explosion killed him and his wife Ellen. My parents.

I began investigating the circumstances in 2002. I started with the PSNI.  I was bounced around between senior officers , including the “salad dodger’ , before finally meeting Chief Inspector Blair, who had evidently drawn the short straw.

He told me that the papers had been stored away. He did not know who had made that decision. Nor when the papers had been stored.  He was unable to give me any details about the investigation, if that is the correct word.

In March 2004 ACC Sam Kincaid informed me that the case was being examined  by the Serious Crime Review Team. You would be unsurprised, Dear Reader to learn that I never heard a word from this ‘team’ .

I asked the Historical Enquiries Team [lots of sporting analogies] to investigate. 

I also made a complaint to the Police Ombudsman.

Each of these organisations told me that they had had access to all intelligence and there was nothing to report.

I had correspondence with Drew Harris, then ACC Crime Operations [was this not a ‘team’?] .

He wrote : “ I can assure you that both the SCRT and the HET had full access to all available information and intelligence material during the course of their respective Reviews … Regrettably, the reviews conducted …did not uncover any new investigative opportunities.”

I sent a detailed reply:

1st September 2014

Dear Mr Harris,

                                      James and Ellen Sefton

Further to your letter of 11th August and my initial reply by email on 20th August, you state in your letter :

“I can assure you that both the SCRT and the HET had full access to all available information and intelligence information during the course of their respective enquiries.”

I would be glad if you would answer the following.

  1. On what do you base this assertion. Is it personal knowledge or are you relying on assurances given by others?
  2. If  the latter, who gave you these assurances?
  3. When you use the word “available”, what do you mean? Is it meant to qualify “intelligence”.
  4. Does the use of this word “available” indicate that someone decides to make information available to the investigators and if so,  who?
  5. Does the use of the word imply that there is other relevant information which has been withheld?

Dr Laura Lundy, in her paper, Can the past be policed? Lessons from the Historical Enquiries Team Northern Ireland, conducts a critique of , inter alia, the access to intelligence. What can be distilled from her report is the following:

  • Intelligence was still being found and collated while she was conducting her research. [I note Roy McComb’s late presentation of intelligence to the Smithwick Tribunal ]
  • “All aspects of intelligence are managed by former RUC and Special Branch (sic) officers”
  • “It appears that the ‘old guard’ play a key role in the management and access to intelligence and perform a censoring role in respect of disclosure.”
  • HET relies on the goodwill of partner agencies to cooperate. This would include the security services and Special Branch, now C3.

It appears to me that there could be three types of intelligence that may have been withheld in my parents’ case.

  1. Information held by a partner  agency or by the police which points to the person who planted the device or more importantly to those persons who directed and approved the operation.
  2. Information obtained by an informant , either participating or not, pointing to those responsible for directing planning approving or carrying the attack upon my parents.
  3. Similar information acquired by electronic or other means , not involving a CHIS.

 For example if  Special Branch had decided to withhold information at the time of the murders, it is possible that the same personnel could make the same decision, many years on. Certainly Sir John Hermon had his worries about “the Branch”.

I should be glad;

[a]  if you would assure me that no information has come to light since investigations were completed ;and

[b]  that no such information as set out above has been withheld from investigators by either the PSNI or any partner agency.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Sefton

Harris did not reply to this but delegated it to Detective Chief Superintendent Hanna, who wrote: “ACC Harris has management responsibility for Serious Crime Review Team and the Historical Enquiries Team, and so his response is based on his personal knowledge that both teams had full access to all available information during the course of their reviews.”

Hanna replied to further correspondence , on 29th October 2014:

“As previously pointed out PSNI have investigated the death of your parents and reviewed the investigation twice since the original investigation, there have been no new evidential opportunities identified”

The case papers were put in a box, again, and that was the last I heard from the PSNI. 

For context, Harris was the main man re intelligence and the point of contact for the Security Service until his appointment as Commissioner of AGS.

 However on 14th  June 1990 a communication was received by the RUC from An Garda Siochana  [“AGS”] , by letter [possibly faxed] 

The content was that the AGS had received intelligence from a ‘previously reliable source’ that there were threats to three RUC officers.

Namely:

James Stepton [sic]

A N Other

A N Other -serving in Tennent Street station

The source is recorded as stating that he overheard a conversation. He also provided a sketch map, hand drawn, which was communicated AGS-RUC.

I have seen that map , on a laptop computer screen.

  • An overheard conversation is often a euphemism for being present during the conversation. A handy way for a participating informant to distance himself from the operation.
  • The informant is likely to be a participating informant.
  •  There was no  ‘James Stepton’ on the force and a cursory investigation would have led the investigator to conclude to whom the report was referring.
  • The hand drawn map is , in many respects, accurate. It is undoubtedly of the Ballygomartin area. It shows  the turn of the road from the Woodvale Road to the Ballygomartin Road, Woodvale Park, Woodvale cricket ground, Glencairn park and a number of streets and roads. Although the writing is indistinct on the screen , I am satisfied that it also depicts Lyndhurst Gardens [my family home]and Westway Drive, the street immediately to the east of Lyndhurst Gardens.
  • The proportions are incorrect but the general ‘get up’ of the map shows a degree of local knowledge , which would not have been gleaned in an overheard conversation.
  • Most strikingly, there is an ‘X’ , or asterisk , which appears to be in Glencairn park an open area, not a street, which is east of Westway Drive and a line which appears to terminate at the top of Westway Drive.
  • If the significance of this is the location and then transport of a device, it would involve the navigation of a deep gully , a small stream and a similar climb on the other side, possibly to avoid patrols and Viper. 
  • It seems to me to be a planning document, showing how a bomb could be delivered to my parents’ house, avoiding the main roads. 

The information from the AGS was disseminated to the Regional Heads of Special Branch. 

One of the other officers who was mentioned in the message served at Tennent Street station and was warned about the threat. So we know that the message was acted upon by SB. 

Why did it not form part of an investigation into my parents’  murders?

Why has Harris insisted that there was no intelligence?

I am told by the Operation Kenova team, who turned up this intelligence, that they found it , stored within the RUC/PSNI intelligence systems.

A competent investigation team would have used the intel as a starting point. The reliable informant was telling AGS that he was present  [though he distances himself by stating that he overheard it] when an PIRA ASU planned the murders of three police officers. One was actually killed. The planning obviously took place before 6th June 1990, and likely took place in the Republic, possibly in Dundalk. His evidence would support a charge of conspiracy to murder.

The Army/Security Service had a number of  informants, including Scapaticci , in place in Dundalk and other places. Was the planning meeting bugged? Who were the planners? Was the AGS informant withholding their identities? Or were their identities known to AGS and withheld from the RUC?

If nobody in the RUC SB, on receipt of the intel said, do we have a James Stepton?- no but we have a James Sefton and he’s dead then they are truly incompetent. 

What happened in respect of the third person named I know not.

Harris gave evidence about his role to the Smithwick Tribunal in 2011. He said the following:

“I am responsible for all matters of intelligence, all matters in respect of homicide investigation. At the moment, I am also—have major responsibilities in respect of what’s known as legacy matters., and I would work closely with the historical inquiry team, who are investigating Troubles -related deaths, and they have some 3,260 deaths to investigate.”

Harris was given every opportunity to come clean on what he and others knew. When I said in my letter of 1st September 2014:

“It appears to me that there could be three types of intelligence that may have been withheld in my parents’ case.

  1. Information held by a partner  agency or by the police which points to the person who planted the device or more importantly to those persons who directed and approved the operation.
  2. Information obtained by an informant , either participating or not, pointing to those responsible for directing planning approving or carrying the attack upon my parents.
  3. Similar information acquired by electronic or other means , not involving a CHIS.“

Harris was being given a clear opportunity to disclose that information existed. 

Aside from his mendaciousness, the new information demonstrates what I have always alleged- that Special Branch cared not, even for their own and that this information, in existence for thirty four years , was known to a number of James’ colleagues, not one of whom disclosed it to me.

I am considering my next steps.

Ellen

                                                       

On this day, in 1924, Ellen Jane Stewart was born, the last of four children of Frederick  and Margaret Stewart 

Her father , a successful businessman and Poor Law Guardian, died when she was just seven.

She married James Sefton in March 1949  and I arrived five days before Christmas the same year.

Ellen had a playful sense of humour, often embarrassing me as a teenager. She worked most of her adult life and for some  years she was a model for a clothing company. “ I model summer frocks in December and furs in June”.

Her joie de vivre encompassed  all humanity particularly gays and Jews and when she finally reached New York, her joy was unbounded.

I never heard her utter a bad word about anyone , her disapproval was couched as “that’s not a nice thing”.

Despite no formal education beyond the age of fourteen, she was determined that her children should succeed. Today she would be called an “aspirational parent”. She encouraged me to read  out loud from an early age and bought me innumerable books. A bit of a slow starter , I  think I finally repaid that investment. 

Looking at today’s ‘helicopter parents’ I’m amazed at how she was unfazed by my playing rugby, even coming to watch a final. She did insist on a scrum cap, though.

I asked my cousin , Valerie, who adored her, to provide some thoughts, here is what she said:

“Today on the anniversary of her birthday, I would like to share some of my memories of my beautiful Aunt, Ellen Jane Stewart Sefton.

One of my earliest memories and an example of her generosity is in 1946 while we were still using coupon books after the War, we stopped at a drapery shop and Ellen handed over her coupon book for the salesperson to cut out some coupons so I could, at age 6, have ribbons for my hair.

When I think of our time together, I remember playing dress up in her bedroom when I was about 10 years old.  Ellen was a Model and had beautiful clothes and I particularly liked her high heel shoes.  I would ask “will you keep all your shoes for me for when I grow up”.  I would “clatter” about the house wearing her shoes many sizes too big.

My Cousin often refers to his Mother’s playful sense of humour.  How true that is.  I remember when I was about 15 years old at her house and the Radio was on.  An announcement from the radio said that a Naval Fleet was in Port.  Ellen clapped her hands and said “Fleets in lets go get a Sailor”.  I thought this was a brilliant idea only to find out she was just having fun with me.

During her modelling career Ellen had many offers of dates, she would tell us about the offers but she always said she did not want to be involved with men she worked with.  I only remember two men in her life.  One was an RAF Officer the son of a neighbour.  The second was the man she married and the love of her life.

I remember every August, Ellen and Grandmother rented a house in Bangor for the month, of course I got to go with them.  They rented the same house every year.  The rental was across the street from the Tonic Cinema and we would go and see a film every week.  Ellen would say we are only going if the film is “all singing all dancing and all Technicolour”.  None of the kitchen sink dramas that came out after the War for her

.

Summer nights in Ellen’s back garden.  She would make a cake before joining Grandmother and me in the garden.  We would come back into the house at about 8pm and eat the cake while it  was still hot, putting butter on it and drinking lots of tea.  Ellen called the cake “my world famous boiled cake”.  I wish I had the recipe for that cake as it would be a further reminder of her.

One of my school friends lived on a Farm and Ellen and I were invited every April to pick Lilacs which they grew at the Farm.  We would bring arms full of them back to the house and fill every vase.  The smell of Lilacs wafted all over the house.

I moved to New York in February 1979 and in May of the same year Ellen came to visit.  She loved New York and its people we met on our travels every day during her visit.

I took her to visit the posh Hamptons on Eastern Long Island where a great number of actors had homes.  Ellen, tall, slim and blonde, turned heads as we walked down the streets of Southampton and Sag Harbor.

Before Ellen left New York for home, she bought several trees for me.  It was like old times planting together.  She said “I hope they do well and I look forward to seeing them on my next visit”.  .Every tree she planted thrived, but sadly she was never to return to see them.

I came back to Belfast for the Funeral and stopped by a Florist to buy flowers for her casket.  I asked for Lilacs because I knew she would like that.  The Florist reminded me that Lilacs are at their best in April and May and are mostly gone by June.  I thought, the Lilacs are gone in June and so is she.

I miss my beautiful Aunt,  She had a great capacity for love.  She loved her husband, she loved her two children, she loved her Mother and she loved me, for which I will be forever grateful.”

Valerie Stewart Torrens

Atlanta, Georgia

March 11, 2024

” The one who plants trees, knowing that she will never sit in their shade, understands the meaning of life” Anon

Ellen, in later years , was devoted to her mother, who died , aged 92 in 1986.

After that, she and my father had a brief few years together, holidaying  improving their home and enjoying their grandchildren , until her death on 7th June 1990. She had faith, her minister described her as a “straight up and down Church of Ireland worshipper”.

Her sixty six years were blameless and filled with joy.

A devoted daughter, wife , mother, grandmother and aunt, the love she left behind shines on today.

An inextinguishable flame.

Money talks

It’s twenty years since I first took active steps to try and find the killers of my parents.

A Crown prosecutor for many years, it was slowly dawning on me that what I had been told, professionally, was not what it seemed in many cases.

I started gently, asking for an update on the killings, which had happened twelve years earlier. It might surprise the reader to know that in those twelve years , not one officer in charge had ever contacted me with an update.

My first enquiries were met with the usual obfuscation and it took many months before I had an intelligent response.

That was to tell me almost nothing. 

Where was the file? Well, it was clear that it had been put away many years before and no detective  had given it a second thought in those years.

What followed was a succession of promises from lots of senior officers who , shortly afterwards retired.

I will not trouble you Dear Reader, with the HET or the Police Ombudsman, because my target is elsewhere.

Follow the money

The Patten payment scheme, ostensibly designed to remove sufficient officers to achieve some parity of religious breakdown in the police, was a bonanza to members of the RUC.

A fifty year old superintendent with thirty years enhanced pensionable service could expect a lump sum of £300,000 and an annual pension of £27,000.

A constable in similar circumstances could expect a lump sum of £134,000 and an annual sum of £13,000.

There were other benefits too. Money to train to be a mountain guide in the Mournes, for example.

Four thousand officers took the Patten offer.

Then there were revised injury on duty schemes.

Then there was a hearing loss scheme.

All-in-all the State paid out more than half a billion pounds to ex-RUC officers.

What did it get in return?

The absolute unwavering silence of every member of the RUC about any information relating to wrongdoing by its members, even if it resulted in the death of a colleague.

For the State, the mirror image is the menu of on-the-runs, Royal Pardons and huge sums paid to SFIRA.

In the last twenty years a number of police officers, known to me personally, and for whom, on occasions I had given advice, pro bono; could have given me information, evidence, a hint, a ‘steer’ or a nod, about the circumstances of the killing of one of their own [and his wife].

Apart from one seriously unwell detective, not one of these heroes opened their mouths. 

Let me give you an example, Dear Reader.

Alan Simpson was the senior CID officer in D Division on the day of the bomb, 6th June 1990. I met him, I think , that day or the next. I certainly met him at the inquests, because he was managing them.

Years on, an intermediary, who I had helped, suggested that Simpson might be willing to meet me and  discuss the case. A date was set , I awaited his arrival but was told instead that he was too ill to meet me.

I suggested that, if I could communicate by email, that would suffice.

He provided his email.

I wrote to him.

On 7/23/20, peter sefton  wrote:

“Alan

Thank you for providing your email address.
My parents were murdered by PIRA by a PIRA ucbt on the Ballygomartin Road on
the morning of 6 June 1990.
I think that you were in Tennent St at the time, in charge of CID.
I seem to recall that we met, once at least, at the inquest.
On the day of their deaths or the next day, I was in Tennent St and I was
taken to a room and shown a wall display of the suspected bomb team,
including their photographs. I believe one may have been a woman and another
was a Finucane.
I have been campaigning for justice for them, actively, since 2002 and very
pro-actively , since 2014.
I know that a person called Braniff was arrested and questioned shortly
after the deaths but was released without charge.
My question is :
As CID commander, did you receive intel from the Branch or any other entity,
including a CHIS , as to the identity of the culprits? Were any suspects
protected by the Branch, FRU/Army or MI5?
My hypothesis is that PIRA were so infiltrated by the State that, even if
advance knowledge was not available [though I have reservations about that
scenario] identities would have been ascertained in the aftermath. So it is
a matter of great distress to me that no prosecution ensued.
Time for me is short and I would like to unlock this case sooner rather than
later.

Regards

Peter Sefton”

Within 24 hours he replied:

“Hello Peter,

Thank you for your email.

My desk is almost clear now and I will be in touch probably over the weekend.

Best…..

Alan.”

He never did reply. Big desk. 

My intermediary was apologetic but assured me that Simpson was ‘very unwell’.

I heard no more from Simpson but was mildly interested that he wrote to the Times on the deaths of Lords Hutton and Kerr, suggesting that he had met them in the course of his duties. Then he published an article in the Belfast Telegraph on 19th January this year. I don’t subscribe to this rag and the article, behind the paywall began:

Colleagues  fed me a false line on Finucane killing writes Alan Simpson 

“As a former RUC CID Detective Superintendent, I was greatly disappointed, but not surprised, at the Police Ombudsman’s recent finding that there had been “collusive behaviours” by elements of Special Branch when dealing with UDA killer gangs in the north-west of the province.”

Perhaps  he has a ghost writer or he has risen Lazarus- like from his bed or perhaps his solicitor , Kevin Winters, has inspired him to write about Finucane but not Jimmy Sefton.

Let me be clear, in the course of my career I met many brave, devoted and honest police officers.

I also met rogues, cowards and liars, the latter too often in the course of a trial.

My observations are directed at those whose  help I have sought, directly or indirectly, who have been motivated by one thing.

Money

I could name these men. But, aside from the most egregious,  Alan Simpson, I won’t.

What lesson can we learn?

The State has bought their compliance and silence.

The operation to kill Jimmy Sefton, happily retired but not on Patten, aged 65 and by implication, his wife, wasn’t sketched out on the back of a fag packet. It was scouted, planned , approved at the highest levels in PIRA. It is inconceivable that informers, agents, touts, whatever you want to call them, were not involved. It is inconceivable that Special Branch did not have information and that some or all of that was not shared with CID. 

Without exaggeration, it is likely that a dozen RUC officers have information that would be useful to their case. 

The same silence operated against my parents is practised when investigations into other killings are carried out by other bodies. 

Some of these culprits think nothing of instructing solicitors on their own behalf and for their own cases  who are , shall we say, critical of the State.

This blog is written more in sorrow than in anger. I saw enough  in my time of corruption at the highest levels of the RUC. Often it was at the expense of their junior colleagues and of justice; but killing is in another realm.

The fact remains that “one of their own” will receive no justice because money talks.

Many of the men of whom I speak profess Christianity.

Proverbs 11:4

My Brief affair with Simon Byrne

                         

Dear Reader! If you have ‘issues’ or are of a nervous disposition, go no further!

Only a few weeks ago, Fat George, the NIO placeman/policeman, vacated his post and in came  Simon Byrne.

Thrusting, opinionated and unemployed, he was an ideal choice for Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Nonetheless, I would hear no ill spoken of him . This ex chief constable of Cheshire Constabulary is known for his firm management style, which is totally different from bullying.

I was enraptured by the idea of a dynamic Chief Constable, after George’s size 40 waist.

Simon’s was 38 at the most…

Perhaps I was carried away. I don’t know, to be truthful…..

Anyway, he arrived and he was on Twitter! Oh Joy!

I followed him!

And he followed me back!  No Chief Constable had ever done that before…

It was because he paid me attention, I think…

So, emboldened, I sent him a direct message on 14thJuly and I said this:

“The murders of James and Ellen Sefton remain unsolved. Your officers assert that there is no intelligence touching upon their killings. This is untrue. You have an opportunity to change the picture by being candid about the true extent of the involvement of State actors. Will you help?”

My delicate young heart beat more swiftly , while waiting for a response.

None there came.

Disgracefully, I prostrated my heart and reached out again to this English Alpha Male.

I said, on 20thJuly, rather lamely: “disappointed that you have not replied”.

Still he did not reply, though he had read both messages.

Am I a fool to myself?

I refuse to believe these seventy four allegations against him were ever true. I’m sure that there is an explanation and that   he is out there for me and that some day my Chief Constable will come and tell me the truth.

 

Simon?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The uncontrolled and unaccountable RUC Special Branch

      

In this blog I contend that the available evidence supports the argument that the RUC Special Branch operated without any legal constraints and was indeed a ‘force within a force’. The effect of this was as touched on, somewhat gingerly by the Chief Constable, in a recent speech. He  said this:

 

“The problem was much bigger and more complex than the “few bad apples” analogy that has been articulated previously. In the absence of any regulatory framework for managing “agents” police officers were left to set their own standards, they were unaccountable to the law because there was no law. They were unaccountable to their fellow citizens. Policing was being done in a vacuum that allowed unregulated practice. Honest individuals were placed in impossible situations, having to choose between bad and worse. Many people lived; but some people also died as a result of that practice.

The environment in which they worked was chaotic – terrorist attacks were happening on a daily basis, and many lives were being lost. Investigations struggled to keep pace with the rate of murder and serious injury.  The pressure was extreme. In these extraordinarily difficult and dangerous circumstances, the intent with which the vast majority of decisions were made was for the protection of the community. But they were, on many occasions, decisions and judgements that should not have been taken; and, I believe, would not have been taken if there had been a proper regulatory framework in place.

The RUC recognised the almost impossible situation they were in and the Da Silva Review makes reference to the fact that the RUC had asked Government for a framework, guidance or legislation on many occasions. Nothing was forthcoming.”

 

 

 

Let’s parse that:

  • Police officers managed agents
  • There was no regulatory framework
  • Officers set their own standards
  • They were unaccountable to the law
  • There was no law
  • Policing was being done in a vacuum
  • There was unregulated practice
  • The RUC had asked the Government for a framework, guidance or legislation on many occasions

 

 

Many police officers managed agents. Those in CID were regulated by the use of the Home Office guidelines.

 

Here they are. There was a later, almost identical version.

 

Our rcfncncc: POL/ 69 1050/1/1

Four rtftrtnct:

 

 

 

HOME OFFICE

Horsefcrry House, Dean Ryie Street, London S.W.i

Telex: 24986

Telephone: 01-834 6655, ext.

 

12th May. L969

 

 

 

Dear Chief Constable,

 

HOME OFFICE CIRCULAR NO, 97/1969

Informants who take part in crime

 

The Home Secretary’s attention has been drawn to judicial comment in the appeal of Cork, Colman and Macro and to criticism of police action in several other cases involving police use of informants who took part in crime . He sought information about police practice from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis and through H.M. Inspectors of Constabulary. The Central Conference on 6th March gave an opportunity for a general discussion of practices and principles.

 

2* The Conference fully recognised that informants, properly employed, were

essential to criminal investigation and that, within limits, they ought to be protected. The risks attached to their employment were obvious, however, and safeguards were needed before use was made of an informant taking part in crime.

The Conference appreciated that circumstances varied so widely that it was difficult- to establish rules of general application; but the discussion

identified the principles listed in the next paragraph.

 

  1. The Conference in general agreed on the following points.

 

(a) No member of a police force, and no police informant, should counsel,

incite or procure the commission of a crime.

 

(b) Where an informant gives the police information about the intention of

others to commit a crime in which they intend that he shall play a part,

his participation should be allowed to continue only. where :-

 

(i) he does not actively engage in planning and committing the crime;

 

(ii) he is intended to play only a minor role; and

 

(iii) his participation is essential to enable the police to frustrate

the principal criminals and to arrest them (albeit for lesser offences

such as attempt or conspiracy to commit the crime, or carrying of

weapons) before injury is done to any person or serious damage to

property.

 

The informant should always be instructed that he must on no account act

as agent provocateur , whether by suggesting to others that they should commit offences or encouraging them to do so, and that if he is found to have done so he will himself be liable to prosecution.

 

 

 

Ac) ,

 

The Chi- f Constable

 

 

 

(c) The police must never commit themselves to a course which, whether to

protect an informant or otherwise, will constrain them to mislead a court

in any subsequent proceedings* This must always be regarded as a prime

consideration when deciding whether, and in what manner, an informant may be used and how far, if at all, he is to be allowed to take part in an offence.

If his use in the way envisaged will, or is likely to, result in its being

impossible to protect him without subsequently misleading the court, that must be regarded as a decisive reason for his not being so used or not being

protected.

 

(d) The need to protect an informant does not justify granting him immunity

from arrest or prosecution for the crime if he fully participates in it    with the requisite intent (still less in respect of any other crime he has committed or may in future commit),

 

(e) The handling of informants calls for the judgment of an experienced

officer, there must be complete confidence and frankness between

supervising officers and subordinates, and every chief officer of police

should ensure effective supervision of his detectives; a decision to use a participating

informant should be taken at senior level.

 

(f) Payment to informants from public funds should be supervised by a

Senior officer.

 

(g) Where an informant has been used who has taken part in the commission

of a crime for which others have been arrested, the prosecuting solicitor,

counsel, and (where he is concerned) the Director of Public Prosecutions

should be informed of the fact and of the part that the informant took in the commission of the offence, although, subject to (c) above, not

necessarily of his identity.

 

(h) Careful instruction should be given to detectives in training.

 

  1. The Home Secretary fully endorses these broad principles. He feels sure that

they are already widely applied in the police service; but in view of recent public

interest he thinks it right to bring them to the notice of all chief officers of police. He asks that you will find means of commending them to everyone who may be concerned in your force. He has instructed H.M. Inspectors of Constabulary to pay particular attention, in the course of their inspections, to the arrangements made in police forces for supervision and training in these matters.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

 

The clue is in the title “informants who take part in crime”

 

Participating informants are a necessary evil. There is no point in having an informant who has the occasional drink with the targets. He has to be in the thick of things. His intelligence is vital in identifying the main criminals. But the handling of a participating informant has to comply with the Rule of Law. It matters not whether the crime is burglary or murder. The law does not distinguish between ‘ordinary crime’ and ‘terrorist crime’.

 

My contention is that the Home Office Guidelines were perfectly appropriate.

 

What do others say?

 

 

The Police Ombudsman said as follows in her report [Operation Ballast]  into the activities of the Special Branch.

“It is accepted by the Police Ombudsman that intelligence, in itself, is not evidence. However it may be possible to derive investigative opportunities from intelligence. There were mechanisms which were used by other police forces within the United Kingdom to prevent the failings of informant and intelligence handling identified in this Report. Those mechanisms should have involved clear and effective policies for informant handling, combined with regular training and effective intrusive management.

  1. Although such systems were used, to some extent, by RUC CID, they were not used by Special Branch. In 1997 the RUC introduced new rules for informant handling and management. A decision was made by Chief Officers that those rules should not apply to Special Branch. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act in 2000 imposed statutory rules about the review, management, assessment and cancellation of informants. The Surveillance Commissioner found, following the referral of the matter by the Police Ombudsman, that those rules had not been complied with in the case of Informant 1, and that there had been a failure to meet National Minimum Standards and to take into account intelligence about Informant 1’s own criminal conduct.

Comment: even after the enactment of RIPA police officers were still not complying with the rules. This gives the lie to ‘Jonty’s’ assertion that what SB did during the Troubles was vindicated by RIPA.

  1. 31.3  Informant handling is a sensitive and important task. Mechanisms did exist and were used by police forces in the rest of the United Kingdom (These were known as the Home Office Guidelines). They were not specifically designed for the purpose of terrorist informants. Nevertheless they would have provided a structure within which there would have been regular assessment of informants, clearly defined and auditable processes for intelligence handling, annual reviews of their contribution and situation, and control over any notified future occasions on which an informant was permitted to engage in crime.

Comment: O’Loan makes the assertion that the rules were not specifically designed for “terrorist informants”. Nowhere does she justify that.

This was the process known as “participating informants,” through which informants could be authorised, within defined limits, to engage in crime.

  1. 31.4  This system was used by RUC/PSNI CID, to some extent, prior to 2000.
  2. 31.5  The rules for participating informants were as follows:
    1. the police must never use an informant to encourage another person to commit a criminal offence;
    2. the police should not mislead a court about an informant’s role in the commission of a criminal offence, particularly where the informant had more than a minor role in the criminal act;
    3. No member of a police force, and no police informant, should counsel, incite or procure the commission of a crime;
    4. Where an informant gives the police information about the intention of others to commit a crime in which they intend that he shall play a part, his participation should be allowed to continue only where:
  1. He does not actively engage in planning and committing the crime;
  2. He is intended to play only a minor role; and

iii. His participation is essential to enable the police to frustrate the principal criminals and to arrest them, (albeit for lesser offences such as attempt or conspiracy to commit the crime, or carrying offensive weapons) before injury is done to any person or serious damage to property.

  1. The need to protect an informant does not justify granting him immunity from arrest or prosecution for the crime if he fully participates;
  2. Where an informant has been used, who has taken part in the commission of a crime for which others have been arrested, the prosecuting solicitor, counsel, and (where he is concerned) the Director of Public Prosecutions should be informed of the fact and of the part that the informant took in the commission of the offence, although, not necessarily of his identity.
  1. 31.6  These rules were not applied by RUC Special Branch. Officers have stated that in the context of terrorism, they were “unworkable”. Attempts were made in the early 1990s to devise a satisfactory system, and approaches were made to Government for the adoption of a more flexible approach to terrorist informant handling. Government did not respond positively to those approaches.
  2. 31.7  The Police Ombudsman has not been provided by the PSNI with any documentation which would indicate that any Special Branch informant whose activities were examined during this investigation, were given participating informant status by the RUC or PSNI for any of the crimes the investigators have examined. These include the suspected crimes of membership of a proscribed organisation and directing terrorism. Over the years informants were allegedly involved in a number of intelligence led operations managed by senior officers, in relation to situations in which the informants allegedly committed offences such as hijacking, unlawful imprisonment, possession of firearms and of explosives. For all of these offences there is no record of Participating Informant status being granted.
  1. 31.8  The Assistant Chief Constable Crime Department has told the Police Ombudsman that a system for the authorisation of participating informants was developed by the RUC for Special Branch in 2001.

Comment: if this was the first system for the authorisation of participating informants it proves that SB were indeed a ‘force within a force’, seemingly unaccountable

  1. 31.9  When information was received, Special Branch officers determined what intelligence should be disseminated to CID or Uniform police on a day-to-day basis. When there had been a terrorist murder, it was the responsibility of local Special Branch officers to liaise with the CID investigation team, to provide them with relevant information which could assist their enquiries. The Police Ombudsman has seen intelligence, which should have been passed to CID officers investigating murders, which was deliberately not passed to them, and was marked “No Downward Dissemination”.
  2. 31.10  When it became necessary to arrest or charge an informant the Walker Report provided that this should only be done in the case of “planned arrests”. In accordance with the following rules; it must be

“cleared with Regional Special Branch to ensure that no agents of either RUC or Army are involved. A decision to arrest an agent must only be taken after discussion between Special Branch and CID. If agreement is not possible the matter will be referred to Assistant Chief Constable level. The charging of an agent must be the result of a conscious decision by both Special Branch and CID in which the balance of advantage has been carefully weighed.”

  1. 31.11  RUC rules provided also that :
    1. Police officers should record as much intelligence as possible on official documentation since intelligence ‘held in an officer’s memory’ was unlikely to be properly exploited;
    2. Until 1995, CID “agents”who were members of “subversive organisations” should be handed over to Special Branch or, where this was not possible, they should be jointly handled by Special Branch and CID.
    3. Special Branch had primacy over CID in terms of joint handling of paramilitary informants, until 1995 when CID officers ceased to handle paramilitary informants.
    4. Officers should assess the continued employment of their sources in the light of the information available at the time.
  2. 31.12  In 1997 the RUC adopted new rules for the “Management and Use of Informants,” modelled on rules produced by the Association of Chief Police Officers [ACPO] in 1995. A former Assistant Chief Constable told the Police Ombudsman in 2003 that Chief Officers of the RUC made a decision, in 1997, that Special Branch should be excluded from the operation of these rules. In 1998 a document was produced for the Patten Independent Commission on Policing, stating that all the rules did apply to Special Branch. This clearly was not the case. The evidence from officers is that there was no change in Special Branch practice until 2000.
  3. 31.13  On 25 September 2000, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 [RIPA] came into effect. Under the Act informants are referred to as “Covert Human Intelligence Sources” [CHIS]. In August 2002 a

 “Covert Human Intelligence Sources: Code of Practice”, came into force in accordance with the Act.

31.14 The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act also established the Office of the Surveillance Commissioners. Amongst the responsibilities of the Surveillance Commissioners is the review of the practices and procedures used, and the records kept in connection with the authorisations, review, cancellation and risk assessment of CHIS.

 

 

Here are extracts from the de Silva report into the murder of Pat Finucane

 

 

Guidance applicable to the Royal Ulster Constabulary

4.15 The only guidance in place relating to the use of informants by the police at

the time of Patrick Finucane’s murder was contained in a Home Office Circular,

the ‘Consolidated Circular to the Police on Crime and Kindred Matters’9 (‘the

Guidelines’). Although the Guidelines were issued in 1986, they were essentially

unchanged from previous guidance first issued in 1969.10 However, the RUC did

not apply either circular in Northern Ireland as they regarded them as inadequate

for dealing with terrorist-related crime.

 

 

Comment: This is incorrect. The guidelines were applied to the CID. De Silva contradicts himself later. Also, he appears not to have enquired as to the practical or legal objections to the application of the guidelines to the RUC.

 

4.16 A letter dated 21 January 1987 from the RUC to the Northern Ireland Office

(NIO) summarised the position as follows:

“[The Guidelines] take no cognizance at all of the special problems relating

to Northern Ireland. They were, of course, drawn up to deal with ‘ordinary’

criminals in a mainland context, rather than for coping with terrorists.

Given our special situation the restrictions placed upon us by virtue of the

guidelines are unrealistic if we are to continue paramilitary penetration/

source protection.”11

 

 

Comment: What is the ‘special situation’- how does a ‘civilian’ murder differ from a ‘terrorist’ one?

 

4.17 A paper subsequently prepared by the RUC for submission to the NIO in February

1988 set out a detailed analysis of the position, which they summarised as

follows:

“At present Special Branch in common with other branches throughout

the United Kingdom, has available to it only one set of guidelines upon

which to base its information gathering procedures and to conduct reactive

operations based on the information received. Those guidelines are set out

in the Home Office Consolidated Circular on Crime Kindred (sic) Matters.

They were originally drafted in 1969. In essence the guidelines seek to set

parameters within which the police can determine the degree and extent to

which informants are to be used in the investigation and detection of crime

and the prosecution of criminals before the courts.

By and large they have been successful in this respect and they continue to

meet the needs of the police in dealing with ordinary crime as no apparent

difficulty is experienced in adhering to the principles expressed therein.

However, major problems do arise when it comes to the application of the

guidelines to the terrorist scene, for here it rapidly becomes apparent that

strict adherence to the guidelines would result in a far from comprehensive

or effective intelligence network ever being recognised.” 12

9 Home Office Circular 35/1986

10 Home Office Circular Informants who Take Part in Crime, 97/1969

11 Letter from the RUC to the NIO, 21 January 1987

12 RUC commentary on the Home Office Guidelines on the Use of Informants, 11 February

 

Comment: Now the RUC are admitting that the guidelines should apply to their Special Branch, the same as all other UK SBs. But there are again “unspecified difficulties”.

 

 

4.40 A later submission to the Minister of State at the NIO, John Stanley MP, on

24 February 1988 attached a paper received from the RUC. As was noted in

the covering minute, “[i]t leans rather more towards an analysis of the admitted

problems than towards actual proposals”.33

4.41 The RUC’s submission noted that the Stalker Report had accepted “the

limitations of the Home Office Guidelines on the use of informants in Northern

Ireland ”34 and that the McLachlan Report had found that those Guidelines “must

be regarded as obstructive and confusing in the dangerous task of defeating

terrorism”.35 A detailed background paper by Assistant Chief Constable (ACC)

Monahan analysed “the gap between the demands placed on the intelligence

sector and its legal capacity to achieve its objectives”.36

 

Comment: It is not known what arguments Monahan made in this paper.

 

On 3 March 1988 the NIO wrote to the Home Office on the subject of the

Guidelines, noting that:

“… the Stalker/Sampson enquiry raised the question of the guidelines for

the police in dealing with informants in terrorist cases. The subject was

subsequently dealt with in some detail in the report of Mr Charles McLachlan,

a member of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary [HMIC], on his

special investigation of the RUC. The general thrust of the comments is that

the existing Home Office Guidelines on Informants are not appropriate to

police forces, particularly the RUC, in their counter terrorist operations.” 38

 

Comment: It is not known what comments McLachlan  made on this subject.

 

Information I have received from the Security Service indicates that the issue

was a topic of informal discussion for some months between the Attorney

General and the Security Service’s Legal Adviser. In a note dated 28 April 1989

recommending that the Home Office Guidelines be amended “to allow effective

but properly supervised use of agents in countering terrorism”, the Legal Adviser

summarised the problem as follows:

“… it can be argued that the Home Office Guidelines are undermined because,

in order to run a terrorist agent so as to gather intelligence or evidence, they

must be continually breached. If that is the case it is unacceptable in terms

of law enforcement. The law enforcement authorities should not be put in

such a position. The rights of the terrorists themselves to a fair trial should

not be jeopardised by non-observance of the rules. Agents’ rights should not

be put at risk by inadequate protection under the rules, particularly as to the

disclosure of their identity.” 50

 

Comment: my underlining-it is clear that the MI5 Legal Adviser does not see how a participating informant of the type being run can be operating within the rule of law.

 

 

4.59 On 12 December 1990, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland wrote to the

then Home Secretary, the Rt Hon Kenneth Baker MP, enclosing a copy of the

new draft Guidelines produced by the Working Group.61 His letter summarised

the current position as follows:

“It has long been tacitly acknowledged that the current Home Office Guidance

on the use of participating informants was inappropriate in the current

terrorist context in Northern Ireland. That Guidance was drafted in 1969, ie

before the emergence of the current terrorist campaign, and it was therefore

designed essentially for ‘ordinary’ crime. Although the so-called ‘Home

Office Guidelines’ are not, of course, binding on the RUC in the absence of

any other guidance, they have been adopted as a general yardstick for RUC

operations, at least as far as non-terrorist crime is concerned.

 

Comment: this contradicts de Silva’s earlier statement that the guidelines were never applied to the RUC

The RUC have strongly represented – and have been supported in this by ‘outsiders’

like Mr Stalker and the late Mr McLachlan – that a completely new set of

Guidelines are required. They want Guidelines which would recognise the

need to allow informants providing vital intelligence to take part in serious

crime provided that certain criteria were met and under the strict supervision

of a senior officer.” 62

 

Comment: this is on the face of it, an extraordinary demand. The request is that participating informants should commit serious criminal offences and be not prosecuted, if they are providing “vital intelligence”. It suggests that this is already happening and that RUC SB simply want it “recognised”.

 

4.65 Blelloch’s Report was circulated by the then NIO Permanent Secretary, John

Chilcot, on 15 July 1992.67Blelloch produced a range of recommendations for

the better management and handling of agent activities in Northern Ireland.

However, as he noted in the Report, the question of the guidance to be issued

regarding the position under the criminal law of agents, their handlers and others

engaged in the intelligence process was one that he was not able finally to

resolve. He described the position as follows:

“It has long been acknowledged that the current Home Office Guidelines on

the use of participating informants are inappropriate in the current terrorist

context in Northern Ireland. The Guidelines were drafted in 1969 before the

emergence of the current terrorist campaign and were accordingly designed

essentially for dealing with ‘ordinary’ crime …

These issues were raised both by Mr Stalker and subsequently by Mr

McLachlan in their reports of 1987/1988. A NIO-led Working Party has since

drawn up, in 1990, a revised set of draft Guidelines … These have been

seen and endorsed by the Chief Constable of the RUC but have not, as yet,

received collective Ministerial approval. The Security Service have in the

meantime for practical purposes been following them, as have the Army.

The RUC in their somewhat different circumstances have not. There, for the

moment, the matter rests.

 

Comment: it is striking that MI5 and the Army, aka FRU etc seem to be content to use the new guidelines, but not the RUC. I wonder why?

The Nelson case has revived the issue. Source handlers and sources have

both queried, as well they might, what, with Nelson in prison, their position

now is and neither can at present be given a very satisfactory answer …

[T]here is something manifestly unsatisfactory about a situation in which

people are expected by Government to undertake difficult and often very

dangerous tasks without, as far they can see, any clear idea of the extent of

the support they can expect if things go wrong.

Nothing has emerged in the context of this review of agent handling to

suggest that the content of the [proposed] draft Guidelines … should be

revised: the problem is one of the status of the document, and, specifically,

the extent of Ministerial approval. The need to clarify this status seems to the

review team to be a matter of some urgency now, and, moreover, one that

will not go away …” [Emphasis in original]68

Chilcot’s letter of 15 July 1992 distributing the Blelloch Report also enclosed a

copy of a minute from the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Sir Patrick

Mayhew. The minute endorsed the report but gave the following comment on the

section regarding agent-handling guidelines:

“… I believe the position is more straightforward than the Report suggests.

… The starting point is that an agent may not, and may not be ‘authorised’ to,

commit a criminal offence. A criminal offence, however, requires a criminal

mind: for all practical purposes no offence will be committed by an agent

whose act is not accompanied by a criminal mind – that is to say, a mind

desirous of the commission of the relevant offences.

Subject to the views of the Attorney General, I consider that, for example,

the ostensible membership of a proscribed organisation acquired by an

agent for the purpose of contributing to the prevention of the organisation’s

objectives is not criminal in character. Similarly, an act that is relevant to

the criminal law of attempt, is not criminal in character if it is done with the

purpose of permitting the actor to participate in the subsequent frustration of

the offence.” 69

 

Comment: let’s consider an example. Agent 1234 tells his handler that his ASU is going to plant a bomb below a policeman’s car. Agent 1234 is to pick up the device and deliver it to the planter. According to Mayhew [who I knew and liked] Agent 1234 has no guilty mind because he does not intend the bombing to take place and/or at the moment when he hands the bomb over it is merely an attempt , not an actual bombing.

4.67 Commenting on that suggestion in a minute dated 25 August 1992, the then

Attorney General, Sir Nicholas Lyell QC, said:

“I recognise there is a serious argument, as you suggest in your minute, that

someone who participates in a particular crime with the intention of actually

frustrating that crime is not guilty as a secondary party. But even if that is

right, and it must be recognised that the law in this area is not yet clearly

developed, it would not assist the individual who participates in a crime not

with the object of frustrating that particular incident but with the intention of

maintaining his cover in order to help the Security Forces generally or to

permit them to prevent a subsequent crime or to arrest those concerned

after the event.

 

Comment: here the Attorney General gets to the core of the problem. The issue that apologists for the Special Branch, like Dr Matchett, cannot answer. Agent 1234 not only hands over the bomb but he drives the bomber to the scene and the policeman is murdered. Is the Agent to receive an amnesty because to have intercepted the bomb might have betrayed the presence of an informer? How many such operations might be authorized for this agent?

It may be that the courts would also recognise a more general defence for

undercover agents based on considerations of expediency or necessity. But

again the very existence of such a defence, let alone its precise scope, is

uncertain and I see no way in which an informant could properly be told to

rely on it.

Clear evidence of motive and intention may of course be highly relevant in

the analysis of any potentially criminal conduct which comes to the notice of

the prosecuting authorities in relation both to sufficiency of evidence and to

consideration of the public interest. But it remains my firm view that this must

be a matter for the prosecuting authorities after the event and in the light of

all the circumstances. There cannot be a basis for the approval of guidelines

which might be said to purport to condone in advance conduct which would

properly be the subject of criminal proceedings.”

 

Comment: my underlining- here the A-G again gets to the core of the problem. No guidelines which pre-approve  serious criminal conduct can ever be legal.

 

4.69 Further insight into the Attorney General’s perspective can be gained from the

minutes of that meeting which noted, in relation to one of the options under

consideration (“Option 3: 1990 Guidelines to be approved by the Attorney

General ”), that:

“… the Attorney General could not approve any guideline which appeared to

condone in advance the commission of serious criminal acts. Responding to

the point that even were he brought to do it the pressure of the first difficult

case would make his position intolerable … [the Legal Secretary to the Law

Officers] agreed and added that the Attorney did not believe that this option

could be delivered.” 71

 

4.71 On 14 July 1993 Chilcot submitted a note to the Secretary of State setting out

the conclusions of the Interdepartmental Working Group, which he summarised

as follows:

“… the present situation is not satisfactory. The existing law appears to leave

agents, handlers, and others involved in the intelligence process – including

Ministers – unduly exposed. This has practical drawbacks (in terms of our

ability to run agents, who are vital to our work against terrorism) as well as

political and ethical ones.

There is much that can, and should, be done on a non-statutory basis to

improve matters. The Blelloch recommendations will help (although they

are primarily directed to army agent handling, whilst the underlying problem

affects all agencies). So will further elaboration of the existing schemes of

guidance and regulation within agencies, based around a common core

understanding both of the law and of best practice. Nonetheless, a stable

and satisfactory way forward, which is fair to agents, handlers and the others

could only (in the view of my group) be achieved by new legislation.” 74

4.72 Thereafter the Cabinet sub-committee on Northern Ireland, under the Prime

Minister’s chairmanship, considered papers from the Secretary of State for

Northern Ireland on 29 July and September 1993. An internal Home Office briefing

note dated 1 September 1994 summarised the results of these discussions

as follows:

“The Northern Ireland Secretary and the Attorney, with some support

from the Defence Secretary, argued strongly that a statutory solution was

necessary. The Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary, the Home Secretary

and the Chancellor of the Exchequer all expressed grave reservations about

opening up such a sensitive area to Parliament when the slenderness of the

Government’s majority could not guarantee a satisfactory outcome.

Formally the meetings were not conclusive in that the committee left open

the possibility of legislation if further work by the NIO failed to identify a

satisfactory non-statutory solution.” 75

4.73 The changing political landscape in Northern Ireland, however, appears to have

diminished the impetus to resolve the problem. The briefing note goes on to

comment that:

“The issue has not subsequently been referred back to Ministers though

there have been occasional meetings of the NIO working group … Given

Ministers’ declared view and the new context created by the Joint Declaration

we have endorsed the NIO view that the issue is best played long. Moreover,

some of the alarm in the immediate aftermath of the Nelson case has abated.

The argument that increased uncertainty about the legality of particular

operations would make agent recruitment and handling more difficult was

probably overstated …

The PIRA announcement of a cessation of violence must increase the

possibility that the policy issue will quietly be laid to rest unless the police

and other agencies start to argue (as they have not yet done) that the law

needs to be changed to buttress their covert operations against other forms

of serious crime. The 1969 circular remains an embarrassment but the line

will have to be that the police and each of the agencies rely primarily on their

own internal (unpublished) guidelines and that they are, in addition, subject

to the ultimate oversight of the prosecuting authorities and the courts.” 76

4.74 Sir Patrick Mayhew minuted the Prime Minister on 28 May 1995 with the following

update on agent-handling:

“In my minute of 11 January I reported that the official Working Group on

Agent Handling remained of the view that the shortcomings in the existing

arrangements for running agents may satisfactorily be resolved only by

legislation, but that the absence of a suitable legislative opportunity and the

uncertainties over the peace process meant that the time was not yet right

to take a final decision on the matter …

With the [PIRA and loyalist] ceasefires in Northern Ireland continuing to hold,

the need to resolve the issue will not be compelling, unless the situation

deteriorates. I still consider that legislation is the only effective solution, as

officials have been unable to produce any viable non-statutory proposals.

However, I doubt there will be a suitable opportunity for legislation on this

topic in this Parliament … I suggest therefore that unless things change we

simply continue to keep open the possibility of legislating … on the issue

when an opportunity arises.” 77

4.75 The necessary legislation was eventually passed (under a different administration)

in the form of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA).

 

Overview

 

4.85 As the running of agents lies at the heart of this Review, I have dealt with the

history of the applicable guidance at some length.

4.86 It is absolutely clear that there was no adequate agent-handling guidance

or direction whatsoever in the late 1980s. The 1969 Home Office Guidelines

had not been designed for a counter-terrorism situation and had, rightly, been

discarded.

 

Comment de Silva again falls into error. The guidelines had not been discarded by RUC CID. The CID ran agents, many of who were involved in terrorism.  What the Special Branch wanted would never have been granted, that is clear. They wanted rules to permit them to run agents who participated in serious crime, including murder. They ran these agents in any event, without the cover of the State. Therein lies much of what is appearing in the Belfast News Letter, under cover of the response to the legacy consultation. A police officer swears to uphold the law and to protect life. A soldier or an agent swears no such oath.

 

The FRU Directives and Instructions were manifestly unsatisfactory

and the Security Service similarly lacked any external framework for assessing

the extent to which agents could become involved in criminality. Successive

reports and representations from senior RUC, Security Service and (latterly)

Army officers had highlighted the fact that this situation was unacceptable.

4.87 In such circumstances the UK Government had a duty to provide an effective

statutory framework and clear policy direction. The issue was considered

extensively at Cabinet level and Government Ministers were clearly aware

that agents were being handled in Northern Ireland without reference to any

adequate guidelines because no such framework existed. Ministers nonetheless

continued to place a high priority on pursuing an intelligence-led approach to the

terrorist threat. The result of this was that agent-handlers and their supervisors

were being asked to perform a task – namely the penetration of agents to the

heart of a terrorist group – that, in some cases, could not be carried out in a way

that was both effective and lawful.

4.88 What was required was a clear statutory recognition that agents must be run at

the heart of terrorist groups; some recognised limits as to the extent to which

agents could become involved in criminal enterprises; and a rigorous regulatory

framework to prevent abuses. RIPA subsequently demonstrated the type of

statutory regime that should have been applied much earlier in the context of

Northern Ireland. However, it is doubtful whether RIPA and its associated Code

of Practice provides a real resolution to these difficult issues given that it provides

little guidance as to the limits of the activities of covert human intelligence sources.

4.89 Many of the grave issues relating to the involvement of agents in the murder of

Patrick Finucane must, therefore, be considered in the context of the wilful and

abject failure by the UK Government to put in place adequate guidance and

regulation for the running of agents.

[R/15] said that the gistthat he took from the Government’s response was, in effect, ‘carry on with

what you’re doing but don’t tell us the details’. This remained the attitude

until around 2000 when the effect of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA)

coming into force required the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000

(RIPA) to be passed to deal with the situation.” 81

 

Similarly,although RUC SB officers undertook training and received supervision, I have not

seen any evidence to suggest they were provided with training or briefing on the

legal implications of agent-running. This is, however, not particularly surprising

given the absence of a statutory framework on which to base any such training

or guidance.

 

So , let’s return to George’s bullet points:

 

  • Police officers managed agents-yes
  • There was no regulatory framework-incorrect, it just wasn’t applied to SB
  • Officers set their own standards-looks like they did
  • They were unaccountable to the law-they have got away with it so far
  • There was no law-the law was ignored
  • Policing was being done in a vacuum-wrong, policing is always done within the law
  • There was unregulated practice-definitely
  • The RUC had asked the Government for a framework, guidance or legislation on many occasions-yes, but what they wanted was undeliverable and would not be countenanced under RIPA

Final comment

There are no bad soldiers, only bad generals. RUC high command turned a blind eye to SB and all its works. The consequences were as Hamilton says , mistakes were made and lives were lost. There is no such thing as the ‘greater good’ as an excuse for facilitating murder.

The outcome is that the state and in particular the PSNI is concealing millions of documents that would , as in Ballast or de Silva, show the extent of malpractice.

Hundreds of cases turn on the availability of these documents.

It’s not only SFIRA who want to re-write history.

Marking twenty eight years

In any other jurisdiction, there are cold case reviews on a regular basis. Even the PSNI is embracing this idea , with the recent activity over the death of Inga Maria Hauser, found dead in April 1988.

As someone said , recently, sad as it is, why her?

The answer of course is that the huge lump of Troubles deaths involve the state and the vast store of documents, implicating it. There are stores  in Sprucefield, Seapark and Thiepval, where the army sits on a million copies. The state, in the form of Hamilton, Harris and the faceless people of MI5 will keep the lid on, as best they can.

All the citizen can do is keep probing.

What is additionally disappointing is that the new leaders appear to have gone to Spooks Academy.

Consider the letter written by the deputy director of the PPS in the case of Seamus Ludlow. His understanding of hearsay would shame a first year law student. How did he become deputy director and regurgitate all the lines of the state? Can you guess? Let’s hope he gets well spanked in the High Court.

As part of the week to mark twenty eight years since the murders of my parents, I am posting a secret document, giving an insight into how the state worked.

There will be other posts in this anniversary week.

 

Screwing over the Ulster working class

“Alastair?- it’s Danny.

Hello Danny…Danny who?

DeBurgh! Templepatrick- Can you  speak?

Sure, there’s  patients waiting but I’ve always time for an Official Unionist.

Good man. Has all that unpleasantness gone away? That stuff with Hart and the PSNI?

Oh yes, complainants under the bridge!

Well the thing is that the jolly old stately home is a bit of a bind, bit of a thingy round the neck, if you know what I mean….what’s the word…raven?

Albatross, Danny

Oh yes and I was wondering if we might join forces to create a lobby firm.

Jesus, Danny, if the Prods of south Antrim hear about that you’ll never be re-elected!

Yes, well OK but I’m not getting any younger and the MP thing was a bit of a surprise to me as well as everyone else.

Well, kiss goodbye Danny, when Paul gets wind of this , you’re toast!

Yes, well back to the business in hand…you up for it?

Of course I am, you know me-and you have a third player, is that right?

Yes, decent chap, media wallah..

Lets go for it- just one thing, you have a lot of people in your constituency who lost loved ones during the Troubles, isn’t that right?

Yup

Sefton , pain in the ass, former barrister, campaigns about his dead parents and Libya?

Yup

What will he think- are you going to lobby for him?

Don’t be daft Alistair- this is business, as my Jewish friends say..

So what if he rings up, looking for help?

We’ll tell him that this is a high profile firm “able to engage at the highest levels on behalf of clients”

Like the Blues and Royals?

Precisely -No working class unionist muck here  old boy.

But wasn’t one of your friends killed?

Yes, of course but we superior chaps have learned to live with that. Fortunes of war and all that. Stiff upper lip and all that.

Sefton  says that his ancestors fought for the Crown since 1605.

Maybe but canon fodder old chap, Like your MLAs . Stupid campaign re Libya. Doesn’t he know that there are fortunes to be made in oil? My old man made a fortune in lemonade- imagine what you could make in oil.

OK count me in- I miss London and the grub.

Splendid, lets meet in the Guards Club, they let Ulster  Nationalists in now.

 

Go way , peasants

On 9th October, at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office,  Alister James Hendrie Burt will have to entertain a motley crew. They will be Arab, English , Irish and Northern Irish. Their common bond will be Semtex. That pernicious explosive will have killed their family member, their friend or will have injured them.

Burt, as a junior minister at the FCO has drawn the short straw , meaning that he should entertain this group and tell them once again [how many bloody times must we tell them?] that HMG will not lift a hand to help them.

The peculiarity of this group is that , among all the peoples of the world, they are the only people not to have been compensated for Gadafy’s supply of Semtex to the IRA.

As a member of the Establishment, Head Boy of Bury Grammar School, St John’s College Oxford, degree in Jurisprudence 1977; he will be required by his masters to send the [mostly] Paddies away with some more platitudes.

Burt will have been briefed as to the dangers of this group. To the danger of the history of the UK’s relationship with Gadafy and with the IRA, where HMG ran numerous informers.

So , the outcome of this meeting is pre-ordained. Burt will express sympathy. He will tell the audience of peasants that Libya is a basket case. He will say that we must wait till there is stability. He won’t tell his audience that Libya is producing a million barrels of oil a day or that its  exports to the UK exceed $350 million a year. He won’t reveal how many of his Tory friends want to do business there, including those of Boris, his boss. Remember the joke about clearing the dead bodies so that a casino could be built?

Burt is another of those Tories who believes the rules are for the little people, [over claiming expenses on his flat.] He is just another Tory, on the make, passing through.

Such is the British response to Terrorism. One a  crook and the other a conman. Those of you affected by killings in Tunisia, Manchester or London, don’t believe that the State has any regard for you. The government is in the grip of the Spooks , who drive the agenda. And of chancers, controlled by the spooks.

 

 

 

Twenty seven years ago

On this day, twenty seven years ago , the PIRA bomb team, which I have publicly named, [ all of whom are still alive, some active in the SF/IRA election campaign in North Belfast] killed my father and so wounded my mother that she died the next day.

Let’s focus on  my mother, Ellen Sefton, aged 66, retired. Her only connection to “the conflict ” as SF/IRA now call it, was to be married to my father and to be a Protestant. No words of apology were ever uttered  by PIRA about her  death. She was the subject of a sectarian assassination involving collusion by the State, no different to those killings suggested by republicans. In all the forty years I knew her she never uttered a word against Roman Catholics. She was ahead of her time. She  befriended gays and Jews and loved the  heady atmosphere of New York. She loved its words and its freedom. She loved her family. She looked after  her mother till she died at 92.  She was full of life. She was my biggest fan. Perhaps that’s why it hurts so much.

Twenty seven years on , the State campaign of ‘forgive and forget’ is still being waged. Useful young idiots , solicitors, businessmen etc. are tapped up with promises of places on NGOs, slap up dinners, and photographs with the great and the good; if only they would embrace the “Peace Process”. The hurt and damage that these people cause  is beyond measure.

For all of these 27 years the State has lied to me, about the big stuff, its involvement  with PIRA, with Libya -and about the little stuff, who knew what about  UCBTs. The State knows who killed my parents, why would they not? They had so many informers that  by 1990 they had over run PIRA. So why don’t they come clean? What dead hand prevents disclosure? Who protects the like of Sean Maguire? To what end?

Who could believe the British Government about any security issue, old or current? A lesson that many of us have learned and many of the relatives of  the dead of Manchester and London will soon learn. Nothing is ever as it seems and the State will always lie to you.

I miss my parents every day.

I’ll continue to fight for them till my dying breath. It has cost me every material thing  I owned  but that doesn’t matter.

If I don’t do it , who will?

And I still own myself….