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The Scottish government is pressing for a public inquiry into the undercover infiltration of political campaign groups to be broadened to examine covert operations north of the border.

The home secretary, Theresa May, commissioned the judge-led inquiry but limited its remit to scrutinising operations in England and Wales.

Police have admitted that an undercover unit that monitored political activists in England and Wales collaborated with Scottish police forces. Mark Kennedy, the undercover officer who infiltrated environmental groups for seven years, visited Scotland 14 times during the operation.

Michael Matheson, the Scottish justice secretary, has written to May calling for the extension. It comes as the inquiry – led by a senior judge, Lord Justice Pitchford – has started preparing to hold public hearings looking at how undercover police officers infiltrated hundreds of political groups since 1968.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...infiltration-campaigners-scotland-theresa-may
 
The criminal convictions of another 83 political campaigners could be overturned because the involvement of undercover police was hidden from their trials, an official review has revealed.

The home secretary, Theresa May, said the safety of the convictions was causing concern and described the withholding of crucial evidence by undercover police as an “appalling practice”.

The report by Mark Ellison QC showed that the undercover officers had operated in such tight secrecy that they routinely concealed their activities from prosecutors and other police officers.

Ellison found that undercover officers deployed to infiltrate political groups had appeared in trials using their false personas, deceived lawyers about their true identities and allowed evidence they knew to be false to be presented in court by prosecutors.

http://linkis.com/www.theguardian.com/yCSIo
 
Doreen Lawrence calls for undercover police who spied on family to be named

Mother of murdered teenager Stephen says officers who infiltrated political groups should be named at public inquiry

Doreen Lawrence, the mother of murdered teenager Stephen, has called for undercover officers who infiltrated political campaigns and spied on her family to be identified.

She issued the call as the home secretary, Theresa May, is due on Thursday to announce the remit of a public inquiry into undercover policing following a series of disclosures in recent years.

The demand from Lady Lawrence directly challenges police chiefs’ resolute stance of refusing to name undercover officers on the grounds that they have an absolute and lifelong duty to protect officers who worked in covert roles.

Last year, May ordered the inquiry following the “profoundly shocking and disturbing” revelations that a Scotland Yard undercover unit had spied on the Lawrence family and their supporters while they pressed police to carry out a proper investigation into Stephen’s murder.

http://linkis.com/www.theguardian.com/1xzgj

I don't think the undercover police should be named unless they broke the law, infringed police regulations or engaged in agent provocateur activities.

But those who thought up and sanctioned the action should be publicly identified.
 
The police at the time were doing what they were told. To make it all about the undercover officers as individuals is to deflect attention for the issue of the establishment government seeing themselves as under threat from the people and mandating anything to stop it.

The individual officers were no doubt told it was a matter of national security and probably believed (at the time) they were doing the right thing - I say this as an explanation not as a justification.

What we also need to be asking is:

Who gave the orders?
Who signed off on this rather despicable strategy?
And where are they now?
 
The individual officers were no doubt told it was a matter of national security and probably believed (at the time) they were doing the right thing - I say this as an explanation not as a justification.

I commented earlier in the thread that people in this sort of long term, deep undercover situation probably "go native" quite frequently. I can also imagine that this sort of undercover assignment is quite fun on some levels - no real work, hang out with your "mates" all day, lots of booze, dope and music, and of course the odd attractive female activist to sleep with. Relatively low risk compared to infiltrating an organised crime gang or a terrorist cell.

A lot of young men would jump at the chance to be paid to live this sort of double life and I do wonder how much of the stuff with relationships etc was ordered, sanctioned or even known about by head office.
 
Official IRA man who served as spy claims US and Britain authorities abandoned him

A senior member of the Official IRA, who was forced to flee his Belfast home following death threats after his cover was blown last January, says he was abandoned by security services after passing information to the U.S. Secret Service and British police about the Official IRA’s involvement in counterfeiting US money.

The Official IRA and its various political wings were a Marxist offshoot of the IRA which was very powerful in influential media and other circles in Ireland during The Troubles. They ultimately believed in Neo-unionism and that the working classes in the North had to be united first.

“The Officials want to kill me. The police and the Americans have abandoned me,” the man told The Sunday Times.

He has instructed a Dublin law firm to formally seek protection from the American Secret Service. The US authorities have not yet responded.

The agent, Michael O’Brien (a pseudonym), said he joined the Official IRA in April 1970 and went on to become a leading figure in the paramilitary organization.

“The socialism of the Official IRA appealed to me. The Provos [the Provisional IRA] were utter militarists,” he said.

In May 1972, the Official IRA declared a ceasefire but did not disband. O’Brien told The Sunday Times that the Officials continued to gather intelligence on the Provisional IRA well after it had stopped attacking the British armed forces in Northern Ireland.

“We used to pass information to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) on the Provos. It was all sanctioned by our GHQ,” he claimed.

After he was caught at Heathrow Airport in London with $20,00 in forged dollars in April 1996, O’Brien said he was recruited as a British agent.

“I couldn’t explain how I had the money. I had no alibi,” he said. “They checked the money out and the US Secret Service soon arrived. They basically said, ‘You have a choice: you can either go to jail for a long time or help us.’ Special Branch from Northern Ireland then arrived. I just couldn’t go back to prison so I agreed to co-operate.

“They gave me $20,000 in real dollars to replace the forgeries, which I had been passing through bureaus de change in London. I returned to Belfast and handed over the money.”

Authorities in the U.S. have repeatedly claimed the Official IRA was part of a conspiracy to circulate high-quality fake $100 bills, known as superdollars, throughout western Europe in the 1990s.

They claim the notes had been manufactured in North Korea and smuggled into Russia, before being distributed in the UK and Ireland by the remnants of the Official IRA.

O’Brien confirmed this belief. “We [the Official IRA] got involved in the counterfeiting for various reasons. It wasn’t just about making money; the plan was to undermine the US financial system by introducing fake currency. It was a political thing as well as a fundraiser,” he said.

“I personally never met the North Koreans. The only involvement I had was collecting money and laundering it. The distribution network we used was widespread. The dollars were manufactured on an industrial scale. At one stage, we printed them in Copenhagen.”

He said he provided the British and American security services with information on how the money was laundered and funneled into the banking system, as well as the identities of the North Korean and Russian officials who acted as middlemen with the Official IRA. ...

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/IR...US-and-Britain-authorities-abandoned-him.html
 
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Gardai knew that a rogue undercover Metropolitan police officer was in the Republic “on a number of occasions” between 2004 and 2006.

New information shows that while gardai were aware that Mark Kennedy was in Ireland, the force refused to tell ministers whether it knew if he was working as an undercover officer. This is despite the fact that he infiltrated protests in Ireland using his alias.

The revelation increases pressure on Frances Fitzgerald, tanaiste and justice minister, to launch an inquiry into the activities of British spies, including Mr Kennedy, in the Republic.

Brendan Howlin, the Labour leader, said that Ms Fitzgerald must tell the Dail if gardai sanctioned and relied on the work of undercover Scotland Yard officers. Lynn Boylan, the Sinn Fein MEP, said that the tanaiste should demand answers from London as to why Metropolitan officers were using aliases in Ireland.

The London force formally apologised last year after it emerged that some undercover officers had deceived women into having sexual relationships as part of efforts to infiltrate protest groups.

Mr Kennedy, one of those involved, joined groups under the name Mark Stone, an alias he used from 2003 to 2010, and had relationships with women under false pretences.

He joined protests against President George W Bush’s visit to Ireland for an EU-American summit in June 2004 and the Shell to Sea campaign in Co Mayo during 2006. He also attended protests at Shannon airport over alleged extrajudicial rendition flights.

Mr Kennedy, 47, also lived in Ireland with his now-estranged wife near Kanturk, Co Cork. It emerged in 2011 that he had been working for the National Public Order Intelligence Unit. Dozens of convictions based on undisclosed information gathered by Mr Kennedy have been overturned. Activists believe that convictions in other jurisdictions may also be affected. ...

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/g...3?shareToken=49a11bfc3ea4be518df54f5b9960eef3
 
Covert infiltration of key strike to be examined at public meeting next week
A Metropolitan police undercover unit spied on strikers and their supporters during the well-known Grunwick dispute
Monday 6 February 2017 11.29 GMTLast modified on Monday 6 February 2017 11.31 GMT

A public meeting next week will focus on how police covertly spied on a group of striking workers and their supporters.

The strike at Grunwick, a small photo-processing factory in north-west London, became one of the most well-known industrial disputes since the Second World War.

This article describes why the dispute in the 1970s - by mainly Asian women - made history and shattered stereotypes.

Evidence is now emerging to show that a Scotland Yard undercover unit obtained inside information about the tactics and movements of the strikers and their backers.

This article details some of what is known about the espionage. Two former police officers have said that the unit, the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), spied on the strike at a time when police were finding it extremely difficult to gather information about the dispute. ...

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...blic-meeting-next-week?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
 
Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan has renewed her call on Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald to seek answers from the Garda authorities about what they knew of the illegal activities of undercover British police officers in Ireland.

The Dublin MEP is also demanding that Minister Fitzgerald call on the British to broaden the terms of reference of the Pitchford Inquiry into the activities of these spycops to include their actions across the island of Ireland. Boylan made her call following the release of a secret 2011 report in which former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan refused to deny that he gave permission for an undercover British police officer to operate in Ireland.

The report was only released after the Ireland Edition of The Times won an appeal to the Information Commissioner against Minister Fitzgerald’s refusal to release it on grounds of state security.

Lynn Boylan said:

“In this report, commissioned by Dermot Ahern but which two subsequent Justice Ministers have said they were never made aware of, then Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan outlined the circumstances under which a foreign undercover officer might be allowed operate in the State. He clarified that Gardaí would insist that ‘no criminal or agent provocateur activities would be allowed or undertaken’ and that the operative should be focused on reporting the ‘actions and intentions of external activists rather than domestic protestors’.

“We already know that one such British police spy, Mark Kennedy, travelled to Dublin for a May Day protest in May 2004 with his former partner, who has made a sworn statement that he not only organised and financed the trip but also brought with him a consignment of motorcycle helmets, which were later cited in evidence by Gardaí as part of a public order case taken against three British activists. This episode strikes me as bearing all the hallmarks of an agent provocateur. ...

http://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/44245
 
Latest developments. Were senior officers ware of the full range of his activities? If so then he shouldn't be the only one facing sanction.

A police spy who deceived an environmental activist into forming a long-term relationship with him is facing disciplinary proceedings initiated by Scotland Yard.

Jim Boyling, a serving Metropolitan police officer, will appear before the disciplinary panel six years after he was unmasked as an undercover spy when the activist revealed details of their relationship to the Guardian. The activist wishes to remain anonymous and is known as Laura.

The Met has apologised unreservedly to Laura and six other women after admitting they had been deceived by undercover officers into having intimate relationships that were “abusive, deceitful or manipulative”. The Met paid substantial compensation to Laura and the other women after a long legal battle.

Police chiefs have maintained that undercover officers were not permitted to start sexual relationships with the people they were sent to spy on. ...

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news...ling-faces-disciplinary-relationship-activist
 
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Many Northern Ireland related conspiracy stories as distinct from political ones vanished down the rabbit hole as the main NI conspiracy thread was amalgamated with political ones and moved to Politics.

There would have been previous posts regarding the Glennane Gang but lets start with this.

Another thread regarding a cross-border conspiracy but originating in the RoI exists:

Garda Collusion In Deaths Of RUC Officers.
http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?search/13462201

More of these stories will continue to crop up. In particular we will soon hear more about the Security Forces infiltration of the UIRA through the agent Steak-Knife and how up to 20 murders were allowed to take place to hide his identity.

Perhaps a Conspiracies Relating To The Troubles: NI/ROI/GB could be created.

Glenanne gang: PSNI 'breaching human rights' of victims' families
  • 28 July 2017
The PSNI is breaching the human rights of families of victims of a Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) murder gang in the 1970s, the High Court has ruled.

The families took legal action against the PSNI for failing to complete an overarching review of the activities of the so-called Glenanne gang.

The UVF gang is believed to have been responsible for up to 120 murders in nearly 90 incidents in the Troubles.

It was based at a farm in Glenanne in County Armagh in the 1970s.

Its members included serving officers of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Ulster Defence Regiment.

It was responsible for killings such as the Miami Showband massacre in 1975 and the Step Inn pub bombing in Keady in County Armagh a year later.

'Frustrated effective investigation'
The judicial review was conducted at the request of Edward Barnard, whose 13-year-old brother Patrick, was killed in the bombing of the Hillcrest Bar in Dungannon in County Tyrone in 1976.

Relatives have called for the PSNI to complete an unfinished report into the Glenanne gang by the defunct Historical Enquiries Team (HET) and publish its findings.

The judge said that in replacing the HET with the Legacy Investigations branch, the PSNI had frustrated "any possibility of an effective investigation".

Both sides will now have to agree a resolution which falls within the human rights legislation the judge outlined. ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/40754011
 
Many Northern Ireland related conspiracy stories as distinct from political ones vanished down the rabbit hole as the main NI conspiracy thread was amalgamated with political ones and moved to Politics.

There were numerous Irish conspiracy threads in the conspiracy section. Most of them are now merged here with your latest post.

If Mainstream News returns, we can later pick and choose what to move from there, here--and vice-versa.

Hope this suits.
 
There were numerous Irish conspiracy threads in the conspiracy section. Most of them are now merged here with your latest post.

If Mainstream News returns, we can later pick and choose what to move from there, here--and vice-versa.

Hope this suits.

Thanks!
 
Collusion in North Armagh/East Tyrone

Dispatches 1991 - The Committee. Collusion between the British security forces and loyalist death squads in Lurgan, Cappagh and Belfast.

 
Miami Showband members Fran O’Toole, Tony Geraghty and Brian McCoy shot dead in a UVF ambush.

The six Miami bandsmen left the Castle Ballroom in Banbridge just before 2am on the morning of the 31 July 1975. One travelled north to visit friends in County Antrim, the remaining five drove south to Dublin and straight into a carefully prepared ambush. Outside Newry they were signalled to stop by a man waving a red light and dressed in military uniform. Believing this to be a British army check point, trumpeter Brian McCoy pulled up in the band’s mini-bus. Four armed men ordered them at gun point from the van. A bomb which had been placed in the van exploded prematurely and gun shots were fired.

Three members of The Miami Showband, Fran O’Toole, Tony Geraghty and Brian McEvoy, were all killed in the ambush. Two of the gunmen were also killed. The UVF claimed responsibility for the attack.

Brian Black reports from the scene of the carnage and comments on the implications the killings will have for touring musicians in Northern Ireland.

An RTÉ News report broadcast on 31 July 1975.

http://www.rte.ie/archives/category/war-and-conflict/2015/0731/718460-miami-showband-tragedy/

Vid at link.
 
Undercover police spying on activists in GB, RoI & Ni has been merged into this thread so I'll post this here.

DIUVZd5WsAA58jR.jpg:large
 
Update on the Glennane Gang.

British government officials 'knew about loyalist Glenanne Gang'

A member of the notorious loyalist killer group, the Glennan Gang, has told how he believes its leader personally killed more than 100 people and dismissed suggestions that a public inquiry would exposed the truth. In a rare interview from his home in South Africa, John Weir insists that a truth commission is the only way that victims will get closure. Connla Young reports.


by Connla Young 28 August, 2017 01:00

A FORMER RUC officer and member of the notorious Glenanne gang has claimed the British government was aware of the group’s activities at the very highest level.

John Weir, who held the rank of sergeant, was speaking just weeks after a High Court judge ruled that the PSNI unlawfully frustrated any chance of an effective investigation into suspected state collusion with the sectarian killer gang.

Made up of members of the RUC, UDR and UVF, it operated across the Mid-Ulster area in the mid 1970s.

Based out of a farm owned by former RUC officer, James Mitchell in Glenanne in south Armagh, the gang is believed to have carried out around 120 murders, the majority of which were innocent Catholics.

Now one of its most prominent members, former sergeant John Weir, has said that the establishment of a truth commission and amnesty may be the only way some of the darkest secrets of the Troubles will ever be revealed. ..

http://www.irishnews.com/news/2017/...list-glenanne-gang-1121798/?param=ds441rif44T
 
More on NI Black Ops.

BriTainted: Part II
How British intelligence smeared Haughey, Hume, and Paisley

by Joseph de Búrca 14 September, 2017, 3:50 pm 0 Comments

Last month, Village speculated about the secrets which Peter Wright CBE, formerly of MI5, and author of the hugely controversial memoir, ‘Spycatcher’, failed to reveal in his book. During his battle to publish it, Wright warned the British Establishment that if they “behaved” towards him (that is to say if they didn’t kill him), the secrets would not be disclosed. In the event, he took them to his grave at the age of 78 in 1995.

By his own admission, Wright was an expert in vilification. He even boasted about his prowess to his lawyer Malcolm Turnbull (now Prime Minister of Australia) during the ‘Spycatcher’ affair. This month we will look at his knowledge of a string of smear campaigns which were directed against Irish politicians, none of which featured in ‘Spycatcher’. As Northern Ireland (NI) Adviser to the Director General of MI5, Peter Wright knew everything there was to know about the smear campaigns of the early and mid-1970s.

PAISLEY
The IPU smear machine and Operation Clockwork Orange

Captain Colin Wallace worked for the Information Policy Unit (IPU), a black propaganda machine in Belfast controlled by MI5/6 at the time Wright was NI Adviser to the DG of MI5. Ian Paisley was one of its victims. It forged share certificates and a bank account in his name. The forgeries indicated the substantial purchase of shares in Canadian companies with misappropriated funds. “I’ve got no shares anywhere”, Paisley thundered in April 1987. “But I mean it’s common knowledge put out by the dirty tricks department that I have ranches in Canada and ranches in Australia”, he added sarcastically. “That has been common parlance for years”. ...

https://t.co/krVaORK7lQ
 
THE Belfast High Court has given permission for a tax driver shot and left with life-changing injuries by a secret British Army unit in Belfast in 1972 to challenge the refusal of the PSNI, the Secretary of State and the Ministry of Justice to hold an independent probe.

Lawyers are arguing that the PSNI is not independent enough to examine the activities of the British Army’s undercover Military Reaction Force (MRF).

Hugh Kenny was shot and seriously wounded along with three other men – Joe Smith, Patrick Murray and Tommy Shaw – on the Glen Road, Belfast, on 22 June 1972 by MRF soldiers.

Former members of the MRF confessed to the BBC TV Panorama programme in 2013 that the British Army unit had killed and wounded unarmed civilians in a number of attacks.

The unit was disbanded in 1973 after 18 months. Its operational records have reportedly been destroyed. ...

http://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/27109
 
Yet more collusion allegations.

Chief suspects in Loughinisland massacre named for first time in new documentary
October 01, 2017 07:43 AM

A new documentary, No Stone Unturned, shown for the first time at the New York Film Festival on Saturday about the notorious 1984 Loughinisland massacre, has named the chief suspects for the first time. They are named as Ronald Hawthorn, Alan Taylor and Gorman McMullen.

The Loughinisland massacre took place on June 18, 1994, in the small village of Loughinisland, County Down, Northern Ireland. Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group, burst into a pub with assault rifles and fired on the customer's, killing six civilians and wounding five. The pub was targeted because it was frequented mainly by Catholics and was crowded with people watching the Republic of Ireland play in the World Cup.

The documentary No Stone Unturned, by the Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney, also states that one and perhaps two of the suspects were also police informers.

In another shocking charge, the documentary alleges that members of the police had known about the intended shootings but did nothing to stop them, even warning one suspect before he knew the massacre was on to expect arrest and questioning the following day. The job was almost called off because the car they had purchased had mechanical problems. ...

https://www.irishcentral.com/cultur...017-10-01&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Mailjet
 
This report by an old Pukka Sahib should make interesting reading.

Northern Ireland police cover up RUC report by ‘racist’ officer
PSNI criticised over refusal to release report on policing reform during the Troubles


The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has refused to release a report on policing reform during the Troubles which was written by a British intelligence officer who held racist views.

John Morton wrote an “ambitious” report recommending an increase in the size of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) special branch in 1973 as paramilitary violence was reaching a height.

The PSNI, which holds RUC records from that era, has refused to disclose the document, arguing that the Morton report was exempt from freedom of information laws because it related to a “security body”. A PSNI spokesperson declined to comment further on the matter.

Morton, who spent decades as a colonial policeman in India, wrote in his memoirs that, over time, “it dawned upon me, and became deeply ingrained, that the British were the rulers of India and that the Indians were a sort of immature, backward and needy people whom it was the natural British function to govern and administer.

“Correspondingly, it also seemed the natural place of the Indians to serve their masters, the Sahibs, and show deference and respect towards them.”

Morton continued: “It was inspiring to realise that I was born into this splendid heritage and that to be British was to be a superior sort of person.”

Morton later became a director at MI5 and held various positions inside Whitehall. He died in 1985.

Queen’s University Belfast legal scholar Dr Kevin Hearty criticised the PSNI’s decision to conceal the report.

“This is not a security issue by any stretch of the imagination, it’s about saving face over what is likely to be another damaging revelation about the RUC special branch. ...

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/cri...ver-up-ruc-report-by-racist-officer-1.3248625
 
A judge has said he will compel the PSNI's Chief Constable to complete an investigation into the activities of the so-called Glenanne Gang, which has been linked to up to 120 murders.

The gang was based at a County Armagh farm.

It included members of the UVF, RUC and UDR.

A report into its alleged activities by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) was 80% completed before the police unit was disbanded.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has not completed or published the report.

Earlier this year, a judge ruled that the PSNI had breached the human rights of the victims' families and it had frustrated "any possibility of an effective investigation".

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-41908334
 
Another RUC informer/agent who had carte blanche to carry out murders. A topic of interest to me as the MI5/(RoI)SB agent murdered my cousin, also to cover up the fact he was an informer.

The most senior loyalist ever to agree to become a so-called supergrass volunteered to kill a Catholic to cover up the fact he was an informer.

Sean McParland died after being shot while babysitting in Belfast in 1994.

The Ulster Volunteer Force was to decide the identity of the killer by flipping a coin, Belfast Crown Court heard.

But Gary Haggarty volunteered to be the "primary gunman" because he feared he was suspected of being a police agent.

The intended target was a relative of Mr McParland, who was 55.

Haggarty, an ex-commander of the UVF's north Belfast unit, was working as a paid Special Branch agent at the time of the killing.

He worked as an informer for 13 years.

In January 2010, he offered to become a supergrass - officially referred to as an assisting offender - and offered to give evidence against other UVF members he said were also involved in the crimes he committed.

Haggarty, 45, a long-time police informer, has pleaded guilty to 202 terror offences, including five murders, as his part of a controversial state deal that offered a significantly reduced prison term in return for giving evidence against other terrorist suspects. ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-42337250
 
Another RUC informer/agent who had carte blanche to carry out murders. A topic of interest to me as the MI5/(RoI)SB agent murdered my cousin, also to cover up the fact he was an informer.

The most senior loyalist ever to agree to become a so-called supergrass volunteered to kill a Catholic to cover up the fact he was an informer.

Sean McParland died after being shot while babysitting in Belfast in 1994.

The Ulster Volunteer Force was to decide the identity of the killer by flipping a coin, Belfast Crown Court heard.

But Gary Haggarty volunteered to be the "primary gunman" because he feared he was suspected of being a police agent.

The intended target was a relative of Mr McParland, who was 55.

Haggarty, an ex-commander of the UVF's north Belfast unit, was working as a paid Special Branch agent at the time of the killing.

He worked as an informer for 13 years.

In January 2010, he offered to become a supergrass - officially referred to as an assisting offender - and offered to give evidence against other UVF members he said were also involved in the crimes he committed.

Haggarty, 45, a long-time police informer, has pleaded guilty to 202 terror offences, including five murders, as his part of a controversial state deal that offered a significantly reduced prison term in return for giving evidence against other terrorist suspects. ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-42337250

Update on the story.

A self-confessed UVF killer and police informer gave his Special Branch handlers advance information about a number of murders, a court has heard.

Gary Haggarty, the most senior loyalist ever to become a so-called supergrass, was a paid police agent for 11 years.

Belfast Crown Court heard he provided police with detailed information before and after a wide range of UVF incidents, including murders.

A prosecution lawyer described Haggarty as an enthusiastic terrorist.

He said the former Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) commander directed "cold, calculated and remorseless acts of violence."

He added that Haggarty had engaged in a litany of criminality over a period of 16 years. ..

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-42359454
 
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