On Friday morning the Belfast High Court witnessed an unusual, if not unprecedented, number of lawyers stream into the huge ornate marble corridor before squeezing into the equally elaborate Court Number 2. With their entourage, the most senior lawyers were employed on behalf of PSNI chief constable, Secretary of State, and the NIO as a ‘properly interested party’ (PIP).
As one passing lawyer of long standing, not involved in this particular legacy case, quipped “I see they’ve wheeled out the big wigs for this one. They’re most definitely worried about whatever is in that file.”
Eugene Thompson, the brother of Paul ‘Topper’ Thompson murdered by the UDA in 1994, was unfazed as he stood observing the latest manifestation that had come to deny him the truth and prevent access to intelligence relating to the murder of Paul.
Like too many families Eugene has seen it all over the three decades since Paul’s murder as the State seeks to bury the truth, protect the guilty, and cover for its crimes. His late mother Margaret had shared that same torturous journey in her never giving up battle to unlock the truth and seek justice. The toll was – is – heavy. Margaret passed away prematurely.
I’m reminded of the words of the father of 15 year-old James Kennedy, murdered alongside four others by the UDA in 1992, when he buried his wife shortly after James’ slaying: “Bullets do not only travel distance but also through time.” That case too had been shrouded in State secrecy and cover-up as the families eventually found out the UDA gang responsible contained 8 special branch agents involved in almost 30 murders and many more attacks.
Eugene is the only immediate surviving relative of Paul. And there he stood, dignified, determined, present – present with RFJ and his legal representatives; a formidable team comprising of the CAJ’s solicitor Gemma McKeown, and counsel Monye Anyadike-Danes and Sinead Kyle.
The circumstances that provoked such a spectacle – resembling defence of the realm sort of stuff – relate to the coroner hearing the ongoing inquest into Paul’s murder daring to do her duty regarding an intelligence file, known as file number 7. Yes, you read that right, the inquest is still not completed after 30 years.
After only recently disclosing the file State lawyers then said it wasn’t relevant to Paul’s murder. After viewing the file the coroner said the information in it is indeed relevant.
This then prompted the use of a public interest immunity (PII) gagging order and the citing of the Official Secrets Act.
The coroner said she could provide a ‘gist’ summary of the file to lawyers acting for the family and to the inquest. The State is now challenging the coroner’s decision to provide a ‘gist’ of the intelligence file. The decision was made after carefully considering and balancing all of the competing issues i.e. the rights of the family to know vs the State’s insistence to withhold evidence in the sectarian murder of a young man by an illegal pro-State paramilitary terror group. This murder already has all the established hallmarks of collusion between the killers and so-called ‘security’ forces. The information that can be provided is only a gist summary – which can be a very vague sense of what the file contains, without ever really disclosing anything – God forbid it gave away State secrets.
But it’s the lengths that they have gone to in order to stop the coroner providing this gist that tells us everything.
For example, we already know from Brian Nelson’s diaries, that the Force Research Unit (FRU) agent and UDA intelligence officer Brian Nelson had discussed with his handler, Margaret Walshaw, surveillance on a taxi firm a few years prior to Paul’s murder – the same taxi firm from which the cab containing Paul left, before being ambushed by the same UDA.
Presumably, as we know from our sources, the taxi firm was still a subject of interest to the FRU and RUC post Nelson’s arrest by the Stevens Enquiry, given that a serving British soldier was monitoring the radio despatch calls to drivers during the period of the murder, and that the RUC had made an internal map of the depot.
The doctrine that the State uses when faced with questions about its widespread use of informers and agents, the Neither Confirm Nor Deny (NCND) practice, is also now a feature of the State’s legal bid in this case – related to this intelligence file.
Of course the systemic practice of NCND has no legal standing in law. It has on occasion been departed from by the State when it suits. Ironically enough, in the trial of Brian Nelson when the head of the FRU colonel Gordon Kerr gave evidence in defence of Nelson stating that as an agent Nelson’s actions saved countless lives adding he was a hero. Of course Kerr, using the pseudonym of ‘Colonel J’, hid behind a makeshift hospital type screen when he uttered this unfathomable lie. The lives ‘saved’ compared to those killed by State run agents such as Nelson, Scappaticci and numerous others is, at best, negligible. Collusion and running agents was only ever about defeating the IRA.
During his recent publication of the Operation Kenova interim report Jon Boutcher criticised the use of agents and informers involved in murders including the failure by the authorities to act on information that could have prevented murders.
Jon Boutcher was also critical of the blanket use of NCND in legacy cases adding that it could not be justified in situations where those working for the State as agents were involved in criminality up to and including murder. It’s the very basis of his report. A matter not lost on lawyers acting for Eugene Thompson. Yet, now as the PSNI chief constable he is engaged in the very antics he was most critical of. Why?
The recent frontpage headline in the Andersonstown News ‘WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?’ requires an answer. Presumably, Security Service, MI5, is now indirectly involved in this challenge too via the SoS and NIO. This begs the question as to why MI5 would be engaged in the behind the scenes efforts to prevent the gist.
- Is there a bigger picture to which file number 7 relates beyond the murder of Paul ‘Topper’ Thompson?
- Is ‘national security’ at risk?
- Was this attack preventable?
- If so was there a failure to act, similar to that as recently exposed in the Operation Kenova interim report, in that the FRU and special branch let the attack go ahead in order to protect a source/s – an agent/s?
- Or did they have intelligence after the killing and are now protecting someone responsible – someone they recruited?
These are just some of the many unanswered questions Eugene seeks answers to.
The PSNI chief constable should have stood aside in this case rather than being party to the very proceedings he has rightly criticised, not to mention what it is putting Eugene through.
And so the packed benches to the right of Justice Humphreys in court 2 were for the most part silent. State lawyers reticent to speak, instead reserving all of their arguments for behind closed doors when Eugene, his legal team, CAJ, and RFJ, would have to leave the court and wait outside, as the proceedings took place. But not before lawyers for Eugene gave an excellent summation of the case including why the coroner should be permitted to provide a gist summary of file 7.
Outside as we left Eugene said: “When the truth is ugly doors get closed and it’s behind closed doors that democracies die. Victims deserve better. We all deserve much better.”
Judgment will be delivered at 9.30am tomorrow morning.
