SAOIRSE32

Belfast Telegraph
Friday 30, May 2008

An inquest into the death of a former INLA member who died from multiple injuries after he was struck by an Army vehicle during rioting in Londonderry almost 12 years ago, was told that two key military witnesses to the incident have ignored legal requests for them to come forward to give evidence.

Daniel Moran, who was a private in the 1st Battalion The Highlanders, was the driver of the Saxon personnel carrier which struck Dermot McShane (36) during disturbances in Little James Street on July 13, 1996.

Coroner Brian Sherrard was told Mr Moran was the only soldier in the Saxon and had driven the vehicle against Army procedures. Mr Sherrard said he had written a letter to police in the jurisdiction where Mr Moran lives asking them to deliver it to him. The police handed the letter to Mr Moran, but so far he has failed to respond.

The other military witness who has not heeded the ruling is Simon Crane. He was a captain in the 1st Battalion The Highlanders and was the second most senior Army officer deployed in Derry on the night Mr McShane was killed.

The Coroner said the former captain had not responded to his summons to attend the inquest, so he has issued a subpoena which will be served on him through the High Court.

The inquest continues.

By Brian Hutton
Belfast Telegraph
Friday 30, May 2008

One of the men accused of the Omagh bomb gave selective explanations for suspected explosive materials found at his home, a court has heard.

Liam Campbell also denied a diary and mobile phone recovered in the raid belonged to him, a detective said.

The convicted terrorist and four other men are being sued by six families who believe they were responsible for the blast which killed 29 people, injuring hundreds more.

Det Garda Anthony Hearty said Campbell adopted a “no response” and “no reply” attitude to interrogation, and gave selective explanations to some of the exhibits recovered from his home which were shown to him under questioning.

The investigating officer said Campbell first denied any knowledge of tubing — similar to that used by the Real IRA for improvised bombs — found at his home, but later claimed he got it at a scrap yard to be used for petrol and diesel.

The accused said he bought disposable face masks in Jonesboro, Co Armagh days before his arrest to be used for weeding his garden, according to the detective.

Asked about walkie talkies and a CB radio he made no reply, but when pressed about insulating tape, similar to that used for improvised bombs, he denied ownership.

“His reply was: ‘That tape is not mine’,” Det Garda Hearty told the hearing, sitting at the District Court in central Dublin.

Michael McKevitt, the alleged leader of the Real IRA; Campbell, said to be his number two; Colm Murphy; Seamus McKenna and Seamus Daly all deny any involvement in the massacre in the Co Tyrone town on a busy Saturday afternoon in August 1998.

Det Garda Hearty told the civil case that tubing, tape, a CB radio, walkie talkies, face masks and gloves were recovered during the search of Campbell’s home at Upper Faughart, Dundalk in March 2000. The co-defendant was arrested at the scene under the Republic’s Offences Against the State Act, and questioned about being a member of the Real IRA. The accused insisted other items seized, including a mobile phone, did not belong to him.

“That’s not my diary, I’ve never seen the phone before,” it is alleged he said.

Det Garda Hearty added: “He was offered the opportunity to deny he was a member of the IRA and made no reply.”

Belfast Telegraph
Thursday 29, May 2008

A team of officers from the PSNI investigating the murder of Capt Robert Nairac, will fly to Britain to question former SAS chiefs, it emerged yesterday.

The detectives will meet the former officers at various locations in England and Scotland, including Hereford, the headquarters of the SAS.

Among those expected to be interviewed is General Sir Michael Rose, who commanded the SAS at the Iranian embassy siege in London in 1980, and during the 1982 Falklands war.

Gen Rose, who commanded G Squadron of the SAS when Nairac was operating in south Armagh, eventually became Adjutant General, the No2 in the British Army before retiring.

Another officer to be questioned is Col Clive Fairweather, who was at one time Gen Rose’s second-in-command of the SAS, and who was Nairac’s boss when he was kidnapped and murdered by an IRA gang.

The PSNI Major Incident Team recently took over investigation from the Historical Inquiries Team, which had already interviewed several people involved with the Grenadier Guards officer.

Captain Nairac, who was posing as a member of the Official IRA, was abducted from a pub in Drumintee, south Armagh, in May 1977, by at least seven men and severely beaten before being driven across the Irish border and beaten again. He was then murdered.

Two years after his death he was awarded a posthumous George Cross, second only to Britain’s highest gallantry decoration, the Victoria Cross.

It is believed the Queen herself demanded Nairac’s gallantry be recognised.

At the time of his death he was working as a military intelligence liaison officer with the army brigade responsible for security in south Armagh, liaising with the Army, police and special forces units operating in the area.

Last week, 57-year-old Kevin Crilly from Jonesborough in Co Armagh appeared in court in Newry on charges connected with Capt Nairac’s disappearance.

The police are also trying to extradite two other men from America whom they believe can help with their inquiries.

One detective said: “We are having to look at this whole murder with fresh eyes.

“We have greater resources and manpower than the HIT and we have a senior officer in charge who has had great success recently re-investigating old crimes, including murder.

“There are several people no longer around who thought they had got away with murder and other serious crimes until we caught up with them.

“We need to talk to these SAS people because we need to know exactly what was happening on the ground in that very dangerous area back then.

He added: “We shall re-visit their statements and re-interview them in case anything new surfaces.

“There have been many changes to investigations and the way evidence is gathered and has become admissible in the years since Capt Nairac’s murder.”

Although Capt Nairac’s parents have died, the detectives have been keeping the murdered officer’s two sisters up to date with their investigation.

One of their aims is to try to discover where the IRA gang buried his body. It is believed to have been placed in a shallow grave, then moved to another location near the border.

It is understood that former IRA men are to be interviewed and if any clues on the whereabouts of the body are unearthed, a search will be ordered.

One of the former SAS officers on the police list said yesterday: “I am sure we will all do everything we can to help the police.

“Neither we, nor the regiment, has anything to hide. Although he was not a member of the SAS he worked with us and we all feel it is time his body was returned to his family for a Christian burial.

“Robert faced a terribly brutal death and if there are more people out there who took part in this then it is our duty to help the police bring them to justice before the courts.”

The police are also believed to be planning to meet former members of the shadowy 14 Intelligence Company, the ‘hush-hush’ unit which shadowed many terrorists with whom Nairac also had close links.

A former commanding officer of the unit said: “There have been suggestions that he was one of ours, or in the SAS. He was in neither, but we will help the police in any way we can.”

GERRY MORIARTY, Northern Editor
Irish Times
**Via Newshound
30 May 2008

ELEMENTS OF the British state acted outside the law during the Troubles and it could even be affirmed that the state allowed innocent people to die, the Eames- Bradley consultative group on the past has reported.

The group made clear at a Belfast press conference yesterday that not only must republicans and loyalists own up to the death, destruction and grief they caused during the conflict but that the British security forces and its intelligence services must do likewise.

The heads of the group, the former Church of Ireland primate Lord (Robin) Eames and former policing board vice-chairman Denis Bradley, in a lengthy progress report, spoke of how many unionists blamed the Republic for “turning a blind eye” to the actions of the IRA and other republican groups.

In a passage delivered by Lord Eames, he said unionists had great difficulty coming to terms with the fact that the British state “not only sought to be an honest broker during the conflict but also played a combative role and, in this context, sometimes went beyond their own rules of engagement”.

“This is one of the critical issues facing us as a group, difficult as it may be for some in our society to hear, that elements of the state, on some occasions, acted outside the law and through handling of intelligence it could even be said innocent people were allowed to die.

“We cannot ignore that, in fact, the state sometimes acted illegally. If we are to move out of the past in a healthy way, then the state itself needs to acknowledge its full and complex role in the last 40 years,” said Lord Eames.

“Having to confront the state about acknowledging its wrongdoing must not take away from the majority of men and women in the RUC and UDR/RIR who did their duty and suffered appallingly and unjustly as a result.”

Lord Eames and Mr Bradley later this year are due to issue their recommendations on how to address the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland.

At the press conference they were uncompromising in insisting that the British and Irish governments and the paramilitaries face difficult challenges in assisting this process.

Their work is being frustrated by the refusal so far of the IRA to deal with Eames-Bradley, notwithstanding that the British intelligence service and members of the Stevens teams, examining allegations of British state collusion with loyalist paramilitaries, have spoken to the group.

The consultative group, however, has not given up on the IRA agreeing to a meeting. The UVF had “open and frank” discussions with the Eames-Bradley group earlier this year but the UDA has not agreed to talk to group. The group nonetheless hopes for progress too in this area.

Lord Eames and Mr Bradley said one of the resonating themes they heard from unionists was that the Irish State “turned a blind eye when republicans carried out attacks in Border areas and fled back South”, and that some unionists believed the Irish government “helped organise and arm the IRA in the early 1970s”.

Belfast Telegraph
By Ashleigh McDonald
Friday 30, May 2008

A witness giving evidence in the trial of murdered father-of-two Robert McCartney has revealed he decided to “tell the truth” to police after being given “clearance” from the IRA.

Ed Gowdy (40), from the Short Strand area of Belfast, also revealed he ” can’t remember 90%” of what happened the evening his friend was killed.

He told Belfast Crown Court he had been socialising with a group of men, including Mr McCartney and Brendan Devine, in Magennis’ bar on January 30 2005.

Following a brawl inside the bar during which Mr Devine had his throat cut, the row spilled onto the street and Mr McCartney was beaten and stabbed. He was found lying in a pool of blood at nearby Cromac Street and despite being rushed to hospital, he died the following morning.

Terence Davison (51) has been charged with the murder and with causing an affray. Two other men — James McCormick (47) and 39-year old Joseph Fitzpatrick — have also been charged with affray, while Fitzpatrick faces an additional charge of assaulting Mr Gowdy. All three accused deny the charges.

Under cross-examination by defence barrister Patrick Lyttle QC, who is representing Fitzpatrick, Mr Gowdy was asked about inconsistencies and varying versions of events he gave to police about the circumstances leading to the murder.

Mr Gowdy revealed he was initially reluctant to provide information due to what he believed was paramilitary involvement.

He told the court that following the killing, IRA members called to his house on several occasions to discuss what he had seen and what he would be telling police. He said: “As soon as I got clearance from the IRA, I made a statement to police.”

The statement in question — which was not the first statement he provided — was made in March 05 and was, he claimed, “the truth”.

During cross-examination by McCormick’s barrister Eilish McDermott QC he admitted that due to his alcohol intake on January 30 — over 10 pints of cider — he couldn’t remember 90% of what happened.

The 10% he could remember placed all three defendants in a crowd which he claimed was armed with sticks and bottles, included IRA members and which followed Mr McCartney and Mr Devine down Market Street.

He was also asked about an interview he gave to The Mirror in the wake of his friend’s murder.

He told a reporter that when the fight broke out in Magennis’, both he and Mr McCartney tried to get a badly wounded Mr Devine out of the premises.

Ms McDermott pointed out various inconsistencies between what he told police, what he told the newspaper and the evidence he had given in the trial about what happened in the bar.

She accused Mr Gowdy of exaggerating his role in the brawl, telling him ” you wanted to make yourself out to be the hero of the hour”.

Denying this, Mr Gowdy said: “I was told to tell the truth in court, the Daily Mirror is a totally different thing.”

BBC
29 May 2008

A friend of Robert McCartney, who is a witness at his murder trial, has said he was visited by representatives of the IRA within days of the killing.

Mr McCartney, 33, was beaten and stabbed to death outside a Belfast bar on 30 January 2005.

Ed Gowdy told Belfast Crown court he was told not to co-operate with police.

However, he said weeks later, an IRA army council representative told him he could talk to detectives. He then made a full statement on 10 March 2005.

Mr Gowdy, who was with Mr McCartney on the night he was killed, said his statements before that date had contained lies because he feared retribution from the IRA.

But under cross-examination, Mr Gowdy said he could not remember 90% of what had happened on the night and agreed he had been very drunk at the time.

Terence Davison, 51, of Stanfield Place, Belfast, denies murder.

Mr Davison is also accused of affray as are James McCormick, 39, and Joseph Gerard Emmanuel Fitzpatrick, 47.

Mr Fitzpatrick is further charged with an assault on another of Mr Cartney’s friends.

The trial continues.

BBC

The soldier driving the Army personnel carrier that killed Dermot McShane in July 1996 was responsible for his death, a police officer has said.

Dermot McShane, 36, a former INLA man, was run over during one of the worst weekends of rioting in Derry.

Police inspector Neil Graham said he ordered Private Daniel Moran to ram a metal skip which rioters were rolling towards police.

Instead, it rammed a wooden hoarding Mr McShane was sheltering behind.

Private Moran has refused to give evidence to the inquest.

The inquest, which began on Tuesday, continues at Bishop Street courthouse in Derry.