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NB: THIS TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A TRANSCRIPTION UNIT RECORDING AND
NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT: BECAUSE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF MIS-
HEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY, IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL
SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS ACCURACY.
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PANORAMA
A Licence to
MURDER
RECORDED FROM TRANSMISSION: BBC-1 DATE: 19:6:02
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Many scenes in this film have been reconstructed based on real events
JOHN WARE: In the early summer of 1987 a van loaded up with personal possessions arrived at Belfast
Docks. At the wheel was a native of Belfast, Brian Nelson. Nelson was bringing his family home from
abroad, but this was no ordinary home coming. Brian Nelson had once been a soldier, now he was coming
back to work for the British Army again, only this time as an undercover agent for military intelligence.
CAROLE CREIGHTON
Brian Nelson's sister
He was a very good agent. He's pretty non-descript, he's small, you wouldn't notice him in the street. So
from that point of view, very, very good cover, so it ended up with them making him like a secret squirrel.
WARE: The unit, based in Belfast, that Nelson was going to work for was the most secret in the British
Army, the innocuously named Force Research Unit, but there was nothing innocuous about their plans for
their new agent 6137. These top secret records on agent 6137 were never meant to see the light of day but
tonight they will, and what they reveal about how the British state used him is explosive. A brutal killing
was to provide their new agent with what military intelligence described as the perfect opportunity.
MICHELLE POWER
Aged 8 when her father was killed
It was just a normal Sunday, everyone got ready for mass. (scene of shooting, car to car) I felt all this glass
coming in all over my face and the loudness of a bang, and I turned round to the right, I looked at my dad
and there was just blood everywhere, all over his whole face, body, and all over me. I was just getting
glimpses of them because of the glass. I was calling his name and I was saying 'daddy, daddy'.
WARE: The men who killed Michael Power were members of a Loyalist murder gang. They'd convinced
themselves he was in the IRA. But there was only one organisation he belonged to, the Catholic Church.
POWER: My father died for his faith. He died solely because he was a Catholic and just because of the
hatred that exists in this country.
WARE: The perfect opportunity for the army's new agent was not to catch the murder gang who killed
Michael Power. It was, according to the secret army records, an opportunity for their agent to join the gang,
to help make their targeting more professional. Brian Nelson was to ensure the proper targeting of
Provisional IRA members prior to any shooting. Every week Nelson would secretly meet soldiers from the
Force Research Unit who, in the jargon of the spy world, were his 'handlers'. They told agent 6137 they
wanted him to take control of the loyalist murder gangs targeting. According to the army records, Nelson
was to get these gangs to concentrate on specific targeting of legitimate Republican terrorist targets. To
help Nelson identify these targets his handlers set him up as a mini cab driver. This gave him cover to enter
hard line Republican areas where most of the targets lived. Nelson relished this cloak and dagger world as
he wrote in a private journal.
"I was bitten by a bug. Hooked is probably a more appropriate word. One becomes enmeshed in a web of
intrigue, conspiracies, confidences, dangers, and the power of being aware of things that others around
you aren't. The power of this phenomenon acts like a drug."
WARE: Nelson recorded the addresses, the cars and movements of those to be shot by Loyalist murder
gangs of the Ulster Defence Association - the UDA.
CREIGHTON: He would only work on supposedly legitimate IRA targets.
WARE: What is a legitimate IRA target?
Panorama 1992
CAROLE CREIGHTON
Brian Nelson's sister
Well one that the UDA will have proof has been involved in attacks, in bombings, in murders.
WARE: The army wanted Nelson to work hand in glove with killers like this man - Ken Barrett. We made
contact with Barrett a year ago, and to our surprise he eventually agreed to meet us. We've had 12 meetings
with him which we recorded secretly. Like Nelson, Barrett wanted to hit only Republican targets which is
why Nelson passed their details to him.
Secret Filming
BARRETT: Now, if you were operating with us and you knew the score then that when we asked you for
something we knew what was coming next. You're not fucking stupid… Brian had been involved a brave
while himself, he knew what the score was. If we asked him details on a Republican he knew it wasn't to
send him fucking postcards. I mean, they're not passing us documentation to sit in the house and read it.
They were passing us documentation because they know what's going to result afterwards. Know what I
mean?
WARE: I certainly got to know what Barrett meant. Later I asked him how many men he'd killed. He held
out both hands showing ten fingers.
JOHNSTON BROWN
Detective Sergeant
Royal Ulster Constabulary, 1972-2000
Ken Barrett was known to be a well placed high ranking member of the UDA in North Belfast, a dangerous
individual. Certainly the most frightening individual that ever I had to meet as a detective officer. We
suspected he was a killer and there is a common denominator, you look into these men's eyes. Certainly as
an interviewer for 30 years talking to him across a table there is a peculiarity, like a common denominator,
and yes, I had no doubt he was a killer.
WARE: So murky was this relationship between murder gangs and the army, it's been the subject of three
police investigations over 13 years all headed by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens.
Often the undercover war in Ireland had to get dirty "but never this dirty" his final report will say.
Was what was done in the name of the state defensible?
Sir JOHN STEVENS
Commissioner, Metropolitan Police
I think if you look at the work that we did, and this has been the most extensive criminal enquiry in history,
that the work we did and discovering what the activities of the double agent.. so-called double agent Nelson
was involved in, of course that was inexcusable.
WARE: Tonight, for the first time, some of the detectives who worked under Sir John Stevens, speak
publicly about the most sensitive police investigation in modern times.
Let me have a clear answer on this. Did the Stevens Enquiry come to the conclusion that the military
intelligence was colluding with their agent to ensure that the Loyalists shot the right people?
NICHOLAS BENWELL
Detective Sergeant
Stevens Enquiry, 1989-94
Yes, that was the conclusion that we came to. There was certainly an agreement between his handlers and
Nelson that the targeting should concentrate on what they described as 'the right people'.
WARE: One of the 'right people' was Alex Maskey. He's a member of Sinn Fein, political wing of the
provisional IRA. Fourteen years ago Maskey was their leader on Belfast City Council. On the afternoon of
the 17th July, 1988, Nelson spotted Maskey's car outside a Belfast restaurant. Maskey had gone there to
have Sunday lunch.
BENWELL: Nelson went around North Belfast trying to recruit an assassination team, and when one unit
were unable to assist, he moved on until he found another one.
WARE: Was that role as an agent provocateur?
BENWELL: Absolutely.
WARE: Do you think that Brian Nelson wanted Alex Maskey murdered on that day?
BENWELL: Yes.
WARE: The first assassination team Nelson approached couldn't get to their weapons in time. So he raised
a second team, one of whom was the gunman Ken Barrett. Barrett went into the restaurant but he was too
late, Maskey had just left.
BARRETT: I mean actually went into that place and stood and had a glass of beer, like.
WARE: And he wasn't there?
BARRETT: And he wasn't there. And yet withal, after I'd left it, a couple of hours later I was standing in
Highfield Rangers having a drink, Brian comes in and says he's seen him in it.
WARE: The secret military intelligence records show that at 7.55 that evening, Nelson telephoned his
handler, Sergeant Margaret Walshore. This is the transcript of their conversation in which Nelson refers to
a "Mr Heckler" by which he means the gun that had been brought to kill Maskey.
NELSON: He just missed death by about 20 seconds. I was involved up to my neck with a Mr Heckler. I
only missed him by 20 seconds. It's because it took so long to set it up.
WARE: Sergeant Walshore then asked Nelson what was going to happen next.
NELSON: If he's there next Sunday he's going down.
WARE: The secret army unit for whom Nelson worked existed, supposedly, to save lives. They were
under orders to pass the police life saving intelligence as soon as possible. But no warning about the
planned assassination of Maskey the following Sunday was passed to the police.
Why do you think it is that the army didn't warn the police?
BENWELL: The conclusion must be that they didn't want the police to be at the scene.
WARE: Do you think the army were prepared, therefore, to allow events to take their course?
NICHOLAS BENSELL
Detective Sergeant
Stevens Enquiry, 1989-94
In the absence of any other explanation coming from the army, that is the view that I would take, yes.
WARE: Because Maskey didn't return to the restaurant the following Sunday, he survived. Today he's just
been elected Sinn Fein's first Lord Mayor of Belfast. Those who colluded in the attempt to kill him did,
however, have one complaint about their agent, "his cowboy attitude to targeting". Their concern, however,
was less about Nelson having set up the assassination than about him getting caught. 6137 has been
warned "We cannot help him if he's caught by the RUC." The army had always intended their agent to take
more of a back seat. They wanted him to stick to supplying just the names and addresses of the targets, but
there was a problem. When Nelson joined the Loyalist murder gangs, their intelligence came from files,
many of which were out of date.
Voice of Ken Barrett
Secret recording
He used to bring fucking that, you know.. hit the button up - just packed. There you are Ken.. you know..
Here's me, fuck, we were throwing them down and we were going through other ones, people were dead on
them. I don't mean dead through terrorist activity, I mean fucking dead through natural causes.
WARE: Nelson's problem was the he didn't know which files were accurate and which were out of date.
His army handlers came up with a solution. In October 1987 Nelson gathered up all the old targeting files
he'd inherited from the Loyalists when he'd joined. Many had been leaked down the years from
sympathisers in the Security Forces. The files included police and army intelligence on IRA suspects,
photographs and maps. There were so many files, well over 1000, that they filled a bin liner and a
cardboard box. One night Nelson drove these files to a prearranged meeting point. There he met his British
Army handlers. They loaded the entire Loyalist targeting system into the boot of their car and drove it to
their army depot. Back at base all the up to date files were selected and reorganised. The out of date stuff
was destroyed which meant crucially the army now had a record of who might be shot. A few days later
Nelson's handlers returned only the files of IRA terrorists who were still active. From these up-to-date files
Nelson wrote down each target's name, address, and any other personal details on blue index cards.
Attached to each card was a photograph, one card for each target.
CREIGHTON: He new they were intelligence matters of some description, they contained personal details
about supposed IRA suspects.
WARE: Did Brian seem concerned that you had seen these cards?
CAROLE CREIGHTON
Brian Nelson's sister.
Yes, he was.. I had seen them I think because he wasn't really thinking and he'd let me see them, then he
very quickly realised that I shouldn't be seeing these and it was bad for his business that I see these things.
So they were put away very, very quickly and the matter glossed over as it were.
WARE: The secret army records show that once the targeting information had been gathered and checked
by 6137, it would be passed on for action. The main emphasis of targeting would now be on accuracy.
Within a year military intelligence were reporting that thanks to their agent the targeting by loyalist murder
gangs was 'more professional'. This was only just beginning to happen with 6137 in his current position.
Nothing could have been further from the truth.
MAURA McDAID: I got the children ready for bed and put them into their camp beds. I said a quick
prayer with them and told them to hurry up and go to sleep because it's school in the morning.
WARE: The army agent, Brian Nelson, had found the Loyalist murder gangs a new IRA target, or so he
thought.
TRACEY McDAID: Mummy said goodnight, gave us a kiss and a hug and she left the room, went back
downstairs.
10th May 1988
MAURA: We were just sat down to watch News at Ten, and just as I sat down there was a loud,
horrendous thundery noise. As soon as they come into the room they started shooting. They just started
shooting and you just feel you're in the middle of a nightmare, that you're going to wake up any second.
This just cannot be happening. I lifted the vacuum cleaner and caught one of them on his arm, and he
brought the gun up and put it to my head, just more or less between my eyes. Terry screamed to me. He just
screamed. At that they shot him twice in the chest. Terry slumped to the ground and the two gunmen ran
out the door.
WARE: Terry McDaid aged 29 and the father of two young girls had been mortally wounded.
TRACEY McDAID
Aged 8 when her father was killed
I got up out of the bed and went down the stairs, and I turned to the living room where I seen my daddy
lying on the floor. His eyes were closed and there was lots of people in the room but I couldn't really see
the people in there. I was just looking at my daddy.
WARE: At home that night Brian Nelson tuned into the police frequency on his scanner. What he heard
sent him into a panic.
BENWELL: I think basically he panicked because he phoned his handlers on a number of occasions that
night.
WARE: But what was his concern?
NICHOLAD BENWELL
Detective Sergeant
Stevens Enquiry, 1989-94
I think his concern was that they'd shot the wrong man.
WARE: As a result of his targeting.
BENWELL: Yes.
WARE: Nelson had sent the gunman to the wrong address. Once again his army handler that night was
Sergeant Walshore. Normally Nelson's calls were automatically taped and transcribed. This was a basic
rule of agent handling. Nelson made four calls that night. But when the Stevens Enquiry came to
investigate, there were no transcripts of any of the conversations.
Why do you think they were missing?
BENWELL: I can't speculate but from my experience I would say that it's highly suspicious.
WARE: Suspicious of what?
BENWELL: That there was something in those telephone calls that they wanted to hide.
WARE: Sergeant Walshore did nothing to allay those suspicions. When she was interviewed by Detective
Sergeant Benwell under caution.
When you ask why on such an important occasion there was no transcript of any of the four calls, what did
she say?
BENWELL: She made no reply which if course was her right because she was under caution.
WARE: But this was another question she declined to answer.
BENWELL: Yes.
WARE: There is one explanation for Sergeant Walshore's silence, Nelson recorded it in the private journal
he wrote. Detective Sergeant Benwell questioned Nelson about his explanation.
BENWELL: I put it to him that he had been told the address by his handler and his words were something
along the lines of 'you're almost there, not quite, but I'm not going to say anymore about it.' There is
certainly a suggestion that he was given that address by his handlers.
WARE: Sergeant Walshore declined to answer any of Panorama's questions. But at the end of her police
interview, she did categorically deny ever giving any information to Brian Nelson. What she can't deny is
that military intelligence tried to justify the murder of Terry McDaid to their agent. According to their
secret files, Nelson wanted the murder gangs only to attack legitimate targets, not innocent Catholics, which
was shy Nelson was upset and why his army handlers met him the day after the attack. They told him their
record showed Terry McDaid had been traced as having connections with the Provisional IRA. Nelson's
handlers noted that on hearing this, his spirits lifted. Once 6137 had discovered that Terence was traced as
provision IRA he was quite content.
What do you think of the reference in the files to Terry McDaid having some link with the IRA when
plainly he didn't?
BENWELL: I suspect that was a story put together to appease Nelson.
WARE: In what way appease him?
BENWELL: Well that he would feel better if he thought that there was a connection between the deceased
and the provisional IRA.
MAURA McDAID
Wife of Terry McDaid
When I heard that it was just total shock, disbelief that.. why add more pain to what they've already done,
you know.. why try to destroy Terry's memory by insulting him?
WARE: Did Terry McDaid have any links or connections with the Provisional IRA?
BENWELL: As far as we were concerned, no, none at all.
MAURA McDAID: We need the truth on it, Terry deserves a justice. They have all the answers and they
know what happened that night and I also know the truth but I want them to tell and admit why they let an
innocent man die.
WARE: Terry McDaid was not the only innocent victim of collusion. By our count at least 80 people
listed on Nelson's targeting files were attacked. 29 were shot dead. We do not suggest Nelson had a role in
all these attacks. What is clear is that only a tiny minority of the victims were involved in terrorism.
BENWELL: When something's gone as badly wrong, as happened in the case of Terence McDaid where an
innocent man has been murdered, I would have thought they would have sat back and thought about what
they were doing, or what they were doing wrong and made some changes. But that never seemed to occur.
WARE: Because there are quite a number of disasters like Terrence McDaid afterwards.
BENWELL: Yes there were.
WARE: Where it had gone wrong was that the army had lost control over who was being targeted. Nelson
had been handing out his targeting files to any Loyalist murder gang who asked for them. The secret army
records show he copied his files at least 36 times.
BENWELL: I think it's a dreadful situation. He's passing it to other groups of killers who are completely
outside even his control, and his handlers are just following on and letting him do it. It's a recipe for
absolute disaster.
WARE: Sometimes the army seemed to encourage this disaster. The murder gang to which Nelson
belonged was the UDA. Having failed to assassinate the Sinn Fein Councillor Alex Maskey, Nelson urged
a rival gang, the UVF, to kill Maskey and one other target. 6137 feels that if the UDA are not going to act,
it is better the UVF do it than no one. Nelson gave the details of both targets to the UVF. In return the
UVF gave Nelson explosives. His handlers approved nothing that if this trade was successful, it will
enhance 6137's standing, particularly if the UVF did attack the targets.
BENWELL: We used to have a saying at New Scotland Yard, that the basic rule of agent handling was that
you ran the agent, not the agent ran you, and there was clear evidence in this case that Nelson was the
leading light, he was running the show.
WARE: By copying his targeting files to murder gangs all over Northern Ireland, Nelson had bequeathed a
deadly legacy. The officer ultimately responsible for this was Colonel Gordon Kerr, he had recruited
Nelson, he was commanding officer of the unit that ran him. He never hid his contempt for the Stevens
Enquiry.
GORDON KERR: There is a further suggestion that Nelson proliferated intelligence docs, within the UDA
and as a result has put lives at risk on a long-term basis. This rather political allegation seems to me more
designed to justify the actions of the Stevens Enquiry.
BENWELL: Well that's absolute nonsense. I mean it was a fact that this explosive targeting material had
been proliferated. It had been passed on to other equally murderous organisations and nobody had any
control over it.
WARE: The Colonel believed that his secret world should be off limits to everyone, even to the forces of
law and order.
BENWELL: He felt that what he was doing was right, and anybody who questioned this was wrong, and I
think he resented it.
WARE: Did he have a clear grasp, do you think, of the rule of law?
BENWELL: No, I don't think he did.
WARE: It wasn't just the army who were colluding with murder gangs. The police were helping them too.
According to the secret army records, RUC sources provided a considerable number of targeting files, 50
came from an officer in the RUC's Special Branch. In fact, the police inspired a murder that has become
perhaps the most controversial of the troubles. Patrick Finucane was a high profile lawyer. Once again the
army agent Brian Nelson helped target him, but it was the police who selected him as a target in the first
place.
MICHAEL FINUCANE
He was a young lawyer, and as any person in the legal business will tell you, his best years were in front of
him. The work that he was doing was high profile due to the nature of the work and the controversy that
surrounded many of the issues.
17th November 1988
WARE: One of Pat Finucane's most controversial client's was this man, Patrick McEwan. He had been
charged with a crime that caused revulsion around the world. An IRA funeral cortège was disrupted by a
car that had lost its way. Inside were two army corporals. Believing they were under attack the mourners
blocked their escape. The soldiers were dragged into a sports ground. An army helicopter filmed them
being stripped, beaten and thrown over a wall. They were bundled into a black taxi and driven away to be
shot. There last moments were on this piece of waste ground. The prosecution claimed that Patrick
McEwan had helped organise their murders, but Pat Finucane got the charges dropped early in the
proceedings.
JOURNALIST: … wasn't a fair outcome. Why did you feel it would be?
PAT FINUCATE: I thought we had merit in our submissions to the court.
JOURNALIST: What sort of merit Mr Finucane?
PAT FINUCANE: In that the case was not sufficient to put him on trial on these charges.
WARE: As client and solicitor left the court house they were photographed. It was this photograph that
was later to seal Pat Finucane's fate. Many of his clients ended up here at the Belfast Police Interrogation
Centre. Many were active in the IRA. But some detectives made no distinction between Pat Finucane the
solicitor and his clients. One of his clients was the IRA's commander in Belfast.
Voice of Brian Gillen
Recorded in 1999
They told me that my solicitor was a Provo. "He's just the same as you. We'll have him taken out." And
generally just running him down, at the same time trying to associate him with something he wasn't
associated with.
WARE: What, the IRA?
GILLEN: Yes.
WARE: Labelling Pat Finucane as an IRA man to IRA prisoners was one thing, doing that Loyalists quite
another. By late 1988 some police officers were going even further. The gunman, Ken Barrett, who we
secretly recorded, says that younger loyalists were being released from police interrogation having been
urged to 'take out' Pan Finucane.
Secret Filming
BARRETT: Young fellers, you know. They'd have come out and said to us they said about Finucane, they
say this and they say that, and they must have said it because kids wouldn't come out and say. They said it
about Finucane because why would they mention Finucane? You understand what I mean? Finucane
wouldn't have been a name in their head.
WARE: Would Finucane have been a target if this hadn't of…. (telephone )
Barrett's mobile interrupted what was to be a shocking allegation.
WARE: Would Finucane have been a target if this feedback hadn't reached you, do you think?
BARRETT: See, to be honest, Finucane would have been alive today if the peelers hadn't interfered.
WARE: Say that again.
BARRETT: Finucane would have been alive today if the peelers hadn't interfered.
WARE: If the peelers hadn't interfered, yes. Do you reckon? You don't think you'd have got round to it
anyway?
BARRETT: No. Solicitors were kind of way taboo, if you know what I mean. Like we used a lot of
Roman Catholic solicitors ourselves. They were kind of way taboo at the time, like, you didn't touch, like.
Do you understand me? Because they came in and seen us and all, like.
WARE: They were off limits.
BARRETT: They were off limits.
WARE: And they acted for you like any other lawyer?
BARRETT: They acted for us like anybody else. You understand me?
WARE: But for Barrett, Pat Finucane as a target did not stay off limits for very long. One night, says
Barrett, a Loyalist godfather who organised killings introduced him to a police officer. They met in a car.
The officer seems to have impressed Barrett.
BARRETT: Well he was a bit of a cool fucking customer. Very, very sure of himself, you know? He
could do more or less anything. This guy could do more or less anything.
WARE: When you met him first time, what did he actually say to you about Finucane?
BARRETT: Just that Pat was one of their men who was an IRA man like. And he was dealing with
finances and stuff for them, and he was a bad boy and if he was out, like, they'd have a lot of trouble
replacing him, stuff like this. He says: "He'll have to go. He'd have to go. He said: "He's a thorn in
everybody's side. He'll have to go." He was determined in pursuing that. That's the one he wanted. They
didn't want any fucking about. They didn't want to wait months. They wanted it done.
WARE: The police officer appears to have sized up Barrett correctly.
BARRETT: He says: "You're more, how do you put it - you're more the psychopath." He says: "You're
more the one for business here, aren't you?" I says "What do you mean, business?" He says: "No, you
want Provies buried." I says: "Aye, of course I do." He says: "I understand where I stand." I says: "Yes,
every time." I said: "You do the business for us. If in the near future we can help you at any stage, that'll be
done. He says: "Yes, as long as we're on the same wavelength."
WARE: A few months earlier military intelligence had noted in their secret records that one of three
Belfast lawyers whom they regarded as sympathetic to the Provisional IRA was Pat Finucane.
MICHAEL FINUCANE
I feel that it's an insult and a grievous insult. It was easy for them to believe that he was a member of the
IRA. I think their limited mentalities did not stretch to differentiating between the role of the lawyer and
the offence suspected of the client. The line between the two was not apparent to them.
WARE: The killing of Pat Finucane was now being actively planned with Barrett tasked to kill him, but he
didn't know what his target looked like. Once again, the army agent, Brian Nelson, was able to assist. Six
days before the murder Barrett met Nelson on Belfast's Shankill Road.
Voice of Ken Barrett
Secret recording
It would have been a day during the week, like. We walked down and he was actually in a car, he was in a
Mazda. I was expecting Brian Nelson to come back with, say, an ID card, you know, saying "There you go
- Finucane's photo, date of birth, whatever. I says "Have you got the message?" He says "Aye." And he
brought it out. It was in like a wee plastic bag. He was involved in a case at that time and he was outside
court or something with a Provie and you seen him fucking jubilant. I just says: "Right, that's dead on."
WARE: Barrett could not positively identify the man he was going to shoot. What he didn't know was
where he lived. Once again the Belfast mini cab driver, also known as agent 6137, was ready to oblige.
Voice of Ken Barrett
Secret recording
Brian knew what we were fucking doing. Brian took me up to the fucking place. Do you know what I
mean? Brian showed me the once and that was all I had to see. Just the once and then I came back up and
round and past it again. You go, say: "One, two, three, fourth door down, that'll do us. Swing on there."
WARE: The murder was planned for a Sunday night in February 1989. Late that afternoon the murder
gang had assembled in a Loyalist club. They needed to be certain that the solicitor was at home. According
to Barrett, the police officer to whom he'd been introduced had said there was one sure way of knowing this.
BARRETT: All I needed to know was that he was in the house. If the car wasn't there, he wasn't there. He
never went anywhere without the car. That was one thing we knew, he never went anywhere without the
motor. You understand what I mean? Don't go in if the car's not there because you'll only get the one
crack. If yous fuck it up, you'll never get a crack at it again. Do you know what I mean?
WARE: As the clock ticked towards 7, a phone call was made and weapons brought for Barrett and a
second gunman. The murder gang's vehicle was a hijacked taxi. At the wheel, a young driver. They were
keyed up ready to go.
Voice of Ken Barrett
Secret recording
Men get nervous when they're hanging about, and get a wee bit edgy, whereas if we get the all clear and go
then it's there and that's it. You understand me?
WARE: Earlier that evening, close to Pat Finucane's home the security forces had been searching lock up
garages for weapons. The murder gang needed confirmation that the roads to and from the target were
clear. According to Barrett this came from the police officer who'd urged him to shoot Finucane. A
telephone message was passed to the murder gang.
Secret filming
WARE: The road block had been taken down, and that's what this guy was telling you, the road block had
gone.
Voice of Ken Barrett
Secret recording
BARRETT: All clear. That meant there's no say, presence in the area, if you know what I mean? Go
ahead, everything's clear, right? Unless you know where the police are at that particular time, at that stage
of the game. You know what I mean? It's a brave drive - three and a half, four mile there. The decision
was taken and that was it. There was none of this fucking about, driving round here and driving round
there. The decision was taken. Bang. Let's go. That's how quickly it happens.
WARE: As the murder gang sped towards their target Pat Finucane, his wife and three children were
gathered round the dinner table as a family.
MICHAEL FINUCANE
I remember sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner. There was a bang from the hallway, my father jumped
up and slammed the door shut while my mother ran behind him and hit the personal attack button. The next
thing I remember is being on the floor against the wall in the corner, holding my younger brother and sister,
and shots going off very loud and it seemed like forever. At that point my memory blanks. But the thing I
remember most is the noise. It's a place I don't care to visit very often but I know it's there, and sometimes I
go back and visit, but not often. I try not to dwell on it.
ALAN SIMPSON
Detective Superintendent
Royal Ulster Constabulary, 1970-93
He'd a fork in one of his hands, so whoever had killed him had arrived like a tornado and had very
ruthlessly killed him.
WARE: This was an angry attack?
SIMPSON: This was a most vicious and angry attack and I've seen people shot in the face before and it had
always struck me as being a particularly venomous thing to shoot someone in the face, there's so much hate
attached to that.
WARE: A press statement from the murder gang claimed responsibility for the 'execution' of Pat Finucane,
the IRA officer not the solicitor. It was written by the army agent Brian Nelson, but the prime movers had
been renegade police officers.
Voice of Ken Barrett
As I've told you before, the peelers wanted him whacked, and we whacked him, and that's the end of the
story as far as I'm concerned.
WARE: But it is not the end of the story so far as the English police now investigating this murder are
concerned. Each week Brian Nelson met his handlers from the army's secret Force Research Unit or FRU.
Nelson has told the Stevens Enquiry that he kept his handlers informed of everything he knew about the
murder of Pat Finucane
BRIAN NELSON: I would like to state that all information concerning the Finucane affair I passed on to
military intelligence through my handlers. At no point did I ever conceal or withhold any information that I
was party to from them.
WARE: When you came to examine the FRU files what struck you about the Finucane case?
NICHOLAS BENWELL
Detective Sergeant
Stevens Enquiry, 1989-94
The lack of any information or intelligence that was in there. It was almost like it was a non-event.
WARE: According to the commanding officer of the Force Research Unit, Colonel Kerr, there was nothing
in the files because they knew nothing about Finucane being targeted. The Colonel has always said that
Nelson thought the intended target had been Pat Finucane's target, the IRA man Patrick McEwan, but that
cannot be true. Remember the photograph that Nelson handed over to the killer of Pat Finucane? Nelson
had 36 individual photographs of McEwan whereas this was his only photograph of Finucane. I understand
the Steven's Enquiry that Nelson must have been told the intended target was Finucane, otherwise he would
have handed over one of his many better photographs of McEwan. Colonel Kerr's unit must have known
that too.
Did the army know exactly what documents and what photographs Nelson had in his intelligence dump, did
they have an inventory?
BENWELL: Yes, I would say they did because the normal position was that whenever they had a meeting
with their agent they would take all the documents he had with him and photocopy them. So therefore they
should have had a full record of everything that he had.
WARE: Including photographs?
BENWELL: Yes.
WARE: So do you find Colonel Kerr's insistence that neither the FRU nor Nelson knew that Patrick
Finucane was going to be shot or was being even targeted, do you find that believable ?
BENWELL: No.
MICHAEL FINUCANE
I don't believe the claim that was made by Nelson's commanding officer that they were unaware of certain
things, or that they were kept in the dark by their agent. They trained them, they infiltrated them, they ran
him, supported him and monitored his activities very closely. They did it over a long period of time, a
number of years, and I am not prepared to accept their story that they only knew the half of it.
WARE: You think the army have got something to hide on the Finucane murder, do you?
BENWELL: Yes, I think there are some unanswered questions there, yes.
WARE: Principally what?
BENWELL: What exactly there role was, what Nelson's role was, why this hasn't been reported as fully as
so much else that Nelson did, those sort of things.
WARE: So you think the FRU are not telling the truth about Finucane?
BENWELL: Yes.
WARE: That's a pretty serious charge.
MICHAEL FINUCANE: It's had a huge effect on all our lives, and so many people I think have been asked
to swallow so much pain and have done so, my family included. But if we are prepared to do that, then we
ought not to be expected to put up with lies and deceit as well.
WARE: Eventually the army agent Brian Nelson pushed his luck just too far. The murder of Lochlan
Maginn was when everything began to unravel.
JENNY MAGINN
Aged 10 when her father was killed
I remember hearing the loud banging noises echoing. I can remember my dad screaming, you know. I got
out of bed and daddy had just come up to the top of the stairs and he fell on the landing. I could see the
wounds on his body, you know.. the blood and there was blood splattered just everywhere, you know. He
started to fall asleep and the neighbour had said to me.. you know.. get a pillow for his head and he was
telling him not to go to sleep and.. you know.. and daddy did do.. you know.. he died there. (breaks down
emotionally)
WARE: Once again Nelson had gathered intelligence on this target which he'd received from a promising
new source. Nelson had given a video camera to soldiers to film intelligence bulletins posted inside their
barracks. One named Lochlan Maginn as a suspected IRA intelligence officer. As the secret army records
noted, Nelson urged a swift attack against the targets on the video. If no attacks resulted, he said, the
soldiers would not supply details of targets anymore. To justify the murder, the Loyalists said Maginn was
in the IRA. The family deny this. So in their attempt to prove they now only shot Republican terrorists, the
Loyalists took the extraordinary step of pinning up some of Nelson's targeting files all over Belfast.
Panorama 1992
CAROLE CREIGHTON
Brian Nelson's sister
The documents, plenty of them, they were too many, like too often and questions were going to be asked, it
was obvious. You just can't paper Belfast with security documents and get away with it. So he was very
worried about his cover from that stage.
WARE: By flaunting Nelson's targeting files the Loyalists had triggered a political explosion. The Irish
government demanded an inquiry. The British government agreed. The army smelled trouble. A team of
detectives from England was despatched to Belfast led by the then Deputy Chief constable of Cambridge
John Stevens. The army went into a panic. One of their darkest secrets was at risk of being exposed. So
their agent was given a crash course in 'in dept resistance to interrogation' just in case he was arrested.
16th September 1989
JOURNALIST: How impartial will the investigation be?
JOHN STEVENS: It will be totally impartial, I can assure you of that.
WARE: The army feared Nelson and his targeting files might be discovered, so they seized them from the
flat where he'd hidden them. Nelson was also promised that if he was arrested, his handler would attempt
to notify him.
Sir JOHN STEVENS
Head, Stevens Enquiry
I've got a fair bit to do now so I'm asking you to excuse me an d allow me to go and continue with my
investigations.
WARE: Finally, Nelson was told to deny all knowledge of the unit he worked for. The murky world of
military intelligence was one thing, the British army's public face quite another. At their Northern Ireland
headquarters it was as if the army couldn't do enough to help John Stevens. No sooner had he stepped off
the plane than they volunteered a briefing.
SARAH BYNUM
Detective Const able
Stevens Enquiry, 1989-91
I asked, just kind of out of the blue, if they themselves ran informants and they denied this. They said
categorically that they we re there in support of the RUC and that the RUC had the role of intelligence
gathering.
WARE: The British army denied categorically running agents?
BYNUM: Categorically denied running agents.
WARE: Did you believe them?
LAURENCE SHERWOOD
Detective Chief Superintendent
Stevens Enquiry, 1989-93
Well it was very early days and I didn't want to call anybody a liar at that stage but it was difficult to believe
that they weren't.
WARE: Because it wasn't true, was it.
BYNUM: No, it wasn't true.
WARE: In fact it was a complete lie.
BYNUM: Yes.
WARE: Was that the first of several deceptions by the army?
BENWELL: It was certainly the first and there were others later, yes.
WARE: The extent of the army's deception would soon become apparent. Stevens examined documents
that the police in Belfast had seized from Loyalist murder gangs. Many shared a distinctive common
feature - spidery writing and details set out in a precise military style. A fingerprint finally identified the
author though not, of course, his secret role.
CREIGHTON: He felt they were getting close to him. He started to worry a great deal, very, very much,
that they were getting close to him, and he would shake, literally shake. I mean if I get nervous, I shake,
and Brian's the same, you know.. you're just sort of highly strung. He was very much under stress.
WARE: Stevens now had the evidence to arrest Brian Nelson and other Loyalists. This operation was
planned for dawn on the 11th January 1990. His enquiry offices were in one of the most secure buildings in
Northern Ireland. By chance, at 10pm on the eve of the arrests some detectives returned to their office.
SHERWOOD: We had a very strong regime of ensuring everything was locked up. There were guards,
armed guards, on the premises 24 hours a day, and the position of the offices within the centre of this large
office block have themselves provided a fair amount of security, at least to a passing burglar.
BYNUM: We returned to Cepark and immediately noticed the signs of a fire. There were a number of fire
alarm points in the building and I went to one, I smashed it with the heel of my shoe and nothing happened.
I ran down to another one, smashed that, and again nothing happened.
WARE: The wall alarms weren't the only alarms that didn't work. In the Stevens offices a heat sensitive
intruder alarm had been installed - that didn't work either.
BYNUM: So I went down to where there was a guardhouse where there was an officer stationed.
WARE: An RUC officer?
BYNUM: An RUC officer. My first words to him were to telephone for the fire brigade and he replied that
the phones were down. I then told him to get on his radio to call for help and his reaction was one of almost
disinterest of well.. you know.. 'what do you expect me to do about it?'. I went to the first floor where I
found a phone and was able to dial out and dial to the fire brigade.
WARE: What had actually been destroyed?
LAURENCE SHERWOOD
Detective Chief Superintendent
Stevens Enquiry, 1989-93
A huge amount of our paperwork and that would have consisted of original statements, original documents,
exhibits, things that… statements we'd taken from witnesses, from individuals, people we'd interviewed,
and some of those we couldn't recover because obviously they related to individuals who had maybe written
a statement under caution or produced an original exhibit.
WARE: The RUC suggested that the destruction of the Stevens offices had been caused by one of their
female officers carelessly discarding a cigarette in a waste paper bin. No one in the Stevens Enquiry has
ever bought that.
Do you think it was arson?
BYNUM: Yes, I do.
WARE: Is that just a suspicion or a conviction?
SARAH BYNUM
Detective Constable
Stevens Enquiry, 1989-91
I strongly believe that it was deliberately set, yes.
WARE: Do you think the fire could have been caused by a carelessly discarded cigarette?
Sir JOHN STEVENS
Commissioner, Metropolitan Police
No, it wasn't caused by a discarded cigarette, absolutely not. What happened was round about the second or
third day of that enquiry we were given some notification that something might well happen. We didn't
know exactly what might happen, and that was the reason we had another duplicate office in
Cambridgeshire police headquarters where we had statements which made sure that when the fire took
place in the headquarters that we had at Cepark we could continue with the Enquiry, so no, it was not
caused by a cigarette.
WARE: Sorry, you're saying you had a warning that there might be a fire of something like that?
STEVENS: A very vague warning that something like this might happen, yes.
WARE: As he surveyed the smouldering embers of his headquarters, John Stevens resolved the arrest of
Nelson and others would go ahead on schedule, as planned.
SHERWOOD: Because of the fire we had a pretty late night, then we were up very early to carry out a
whole series of raids and hopefully arrests. The vehicles went out with all the arrest teams and as the
morning went on various people were arrested.
WARE: But not Brian Nelson?
SHERWOOD: But not Brian Nelson.
WARE: Had he been tipped off?
SHERWOOD: Well it looks now, with the benefit of hindsight that that must have happened.
WARE: The army had indeed kept their promise to alert him. Hours before the fire Nelson had fled to
England. "Source is in such a tight corner at present" his handlers recorded "but not for long" they hoped.
They thought a demoralised Stevens team would be packing their bags.
CREIGHTON: And he phoned the army, apparently, and they told him to come back. They would have
documents for him to come back and carry on, business as usual.
WARE: The army were going to hand him back the documents.
CREIGHTON: Mmm hm.
WARE: He told you that?
CREIGHTON: Mmm hm. His army handlers had said come back, that they would meet him. I think
something like at 7 o'clock, and at 6 o'clock the Stevens team turned up.
WARE: For Brian Nelson the dirty undercover war was over. But for the intelligence services the cover-up
had only just begun.
_________
In part two of this special investigation we travel halfway round the world to track down the colonel who
ran Nelson's unit, and the police on the police, how the Special Branch covered up the truth about murder.
ALEX MASKEY: A murderer tells me that my colleagues are going to rid themselves of me out of Belfast
because I'm treading on toes.
That's Panorama, the concluding part of a "Licence to Murder" this Sunday, after the 10 o'clock news.
PANORAMA
A Licence to
MURDER Part two
RECORDED FROM TRANSMISSION: BBC-1 DATE: 23:06:02
........................................................................
Many scenes in this film have been reconstructed based on real events
JOHN WARE: A license to murder: the story so far.
JENNY MAGINN: I got out of bed and daddy had just come up to the top of the stairs and he fell on the
landing.
PATRICK FINUCANE: It's a place I don't care to visit very often, but I know it's there.
SEAN SLANE: Just crying, asking him to wake up. Daddy wake up, wake up.
WARE: These are the children who saw their fathers murdered. This is the secret British agent who chose
them as targets. And this is the military intelligence colonel who recruited the agent. The agent's name
was Brian Nelson, but in the secret army records he was known as 6137. We've had unique access to these
records which reveal his mission was to infiltrate the Loyalist murder gang to stop them shooting innocent
Catholics, and to ensure the proper targeting of IRA members prior to any shooting. The agent was tasked
to work hand-in-glove with Loyalist killers like this man, Ken Barrett, passing them names and addresses of
IRA targets. We've had 12 meetings with Barrett over the past year, all of them secretly recorded.
Secret filming
KEN BARRETT: They're not passing us documentation to sit in the house and read it. They're passing us
documentation because they know what's going to result afterwards.
WARE: So murky was this relationship between military intelligence and Loyalist murder gangs that it's
still the subject of the longest and most sensitive police enquiry in recent times. It's headed by the
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens. This week on Panorama his detectives speak for the
first time.
Let me have a clear answer on this. Did the Stevens Enquiry come to the conclusion that military
intelligence was colluding with their agent to ensure that the Loyalists shot the right people?
NICHOLAS BENWELL
Detective Sergeant
Stevens Enquiry, 1989-94
Yes, that was the conclusion that we came to.
WARE: When John Stevens began to investigate back in 1989 the army told him they did not run agents.
It wasn't true, was it?
SARAH BYNUM
Detective Constable
Stevens Enquiry, 1989-91
No, it wasn't true.
WARE: In fact it was a complete lie.
BYNUM: Yes.
WARE: Eventually the Stevens Enquiry uncovered the agent Nelson. On the eve of his arrest Stevens'
detectives returned to their offices.
Do you think it was arson?
BYNUM: Yes, I do.
WARE: Dark forces may have attempted to thwart the police inquiry but eventually agent 6137 was
arrested. Once in custody Nelson seemed relieved it was all over. He even volunteered he was an army
agent.
NELSON: At no point did I ever withhold or conceal any information that I was party to from them.
WARE: The army had prepared Nelson for precisely this situation. They'd instructed him to say nothing,
and they'd even given him anti-interrogation lessons.
LYNN EVANS: He was very keen to tell us everything.
WARE: What was the total length of statement that you took from him?
LYNN EVANS
Detective Sergeant
Stevens Enquiry, 1989-93
Well I think you're talking a thousand pages of statement.
WARE: A thousand pages? Did he tell you the whole story do you think?
EVANS: I think Brian Nelson could tell us what Brian Nelson wanted to tell us, although he could stop
short where he wanted to stop short.
WARE: The Stevens Enquiry needed to know if Nelson was telling the truth. So they interviewed all the
army handlers who'd run him as an agent but in the most bizarre of circumstances. Silent but every present
in the shadows were representatives of military intelligence, Special Branch and MI5. All the interviews
were conducted simultaneously. And whenever the police wanted an answer checked in the secret records,
the checks were made by the soldiers because only the soldiers were allowed to check the files.
NICHOLAS BENWELL
Detective Sergeant
Stevens Enquiry, 1989-94
So they were going there to consult the secret files and then they would come back and give the answers.
One had the definite impression that you weren't getting everything. They had certainly left out a huge
amount which they could have told us on that first occasion.
WARE: So they were being selective?
BENWELL: Very.
WARE: So a request from the Stevens Enquiry became a demand, one which had to be repeated many
times over the coming months.
Is it fair to say the files were handed over under duress?
BENWELL: Yes.
WARE: Am I right in saying that army officers, in fact quite senior army officers had to be spoken to?
BENWELL: Yes.
WARE: So senior, in fact, that the army was warned that general officer commanding forces in Northern
Ireland, Lieutenant General Sir John Walters could be arrested unless they co-operated. The message got
home, and the details of agent 6137's targeting activities were made available to the Stevens enquiry. The
reason for the army's resistance became clear. The records revealed the full extent of Nelson's involvement
in the murder gangs of the Loyalist UDA.
When you did get access to the files, what did you discover about Nelson's activities? Just paint a picture
for me.
BENWELL: That he had been at the heart of all the activity of the UDA/UFF. He had been directing the
targeting operations which were being carried out by the UDA/UFF thugs.
WARE: One of the gunmen to whom nelson had been supplying targeting info was this man, Ken Barrett
whom we secretly filmed over a series of meetings.
BARRETT: If we asked him details on a Republican, he knew it wasn't to send him fucking postcards.
Like I mean they're not passing us documentation to sit in the house and read it. They're passing us
documentation because they know what's going to result afterwards. You know what I mean?
WARE: How many crimes was Nelson involved in? Give me some sense of the scale of it - conspiracies,
murders, whatever.
BENWELL: Over 50.
WARE: The colonel who recruited Nelson to the shadowy Force Research Unit, and who commanded his
handlers was Gordon Kerr. When questioned by Stevens he prepared an extensive statement defending
Nelson's relationship with murder gangs. He admitted he had used Nelson to redirect their guns at IRA
targets.
GORDON KERR: By getting him into that position Force Research Unit reasoned in that way could
persuade the UDA to centralise their targeting through Nelson and to concentrate their targeting on known
provisional IRA activists.
WARE: However, the colonel claimed his plan, far from taking lives, was designed to save them. IRA
activists, he argued, were far harder targets than innocent Catholics. This gave his unit, in co-operation
with the Royal Ulster Constabulary, more time to prepare countermeasures to prevent the killings.
KERR: The Force Research Unit made the greatest efforts to inform the RUC of all relevant intelligence
regarding planned UDA targeting and attacks. Nelson was a prolific provider of life saving intelligence, the
statistics of 730 reports about targeting of 217 individuals are witness to that.
WARE: The Colonel in charge of the FRU, the Force Research Unit, suggested that Nelson had saved his
intelligence and been used to save scores and scores of lives. Was that your finding?
SARAH BYNUM
Detective Constable
Stevens Enquiry, 1989-91
I think not. I can't say that it was clear to us that the whole goal of the army having him in place was to
save life.
JOHN WARE
The colonel though was right about one thing: 730 warning reports were sent to the RUC Special Branch
here at Castlereagh Belfast. Passing warning reports to the police was the crucial function of the Colonel's
unit. The unit existed, supposedly to save lives. But it's what his unit chose to put in those reports that
really mattered, because what they chose to leave out could be a matter of life or death.
WARE: One of the reports the army sent to the Special Branch concerned the targeting of a man called
Gerard Slane. The secret records show the Loyalists thought he was a gunman for a Republican splinter
group. The army could have told the police that Slane's life was in grave danger. It is obvious that 6137
wants a prestigious target to be hit, but that would have meant telling the police their own agent was doing
he targeting. We know this because their records show it. Nelson is recorded as having passed both
Slane's address and photograph to a loyalist godfather.
SEAN SLANE: Just woken up by the sound of glass breaking. My father ran downstairs and then came
running back up, and he tried to knock 'em down, kick 'em down the stairs with a ladder. And I just heard
gunfire, just all the cracks and the shots, and my father just dropped.
WARE: Gerard Slane, father of three young children, died almost instantly.
SEAN SLANE
Aged 8 when his father was killed
And would lie down beside him, just crying, asking him to wake up. Daddy, wake up, wake up. But there
was just no movement, he was just lying there still. Just lying, staring. What's going on?
NICHOLAS BENWELL
Detective Sergeant
Stevens Enquiry, 1989-94
One of my abiding memories was from a statement of a neighbour of Miss Slane's just after he'd been
murdered, and the picture of the little boy, the son, in his pyjamas, and he was in such distress and grief,
that he was jumping up and down in the front garden, and he was lacerating his feet on the broken glass
from the front door where the killers had smashed their way in, and that's remained with me that image.
SLANE: I felt.. I really did think deep in my heart that it was a dream, that it wasn't happening, that it
wasn't real. I thought it was a nightmare, that it wasn't real, I was just waiting on somebody.. like my
father coming in saying Sean, are you okay, wake up. But it never happened, it never came. Thirteen years
later I'm still sitting here hoping for m him to wake me up.
WARE: At Slane's inquest a detective said he was not a gunman. Colonel Kerr told the Stevens Enquiry
there was nothing his unit could have done to prevent this murder.
KERR: Slane was killed but no one in the Force Research Unit or the Special Branch knew that an
imminent attack was being planned, or that he had been singled out as a target.
BENWELL: That's not correct. They knew that Nelson had been targeting Slane. They also knew he'd
been to his intelligence dump and he'd got a photograph of Slane which he'd handed to one of the most
prolific killers in the organisation. That at least should have set the alarm bells ringing. And they should
have been passed to the RUC.
WARE: But nothing was passed to the RUC. All the colonel's unit had prepared was a vaguely worded
summary for the police. It said the Loyalists wanted three attacks to be carried out before the end of
October. This report made no mention of Slane, nor by the time he was shot had it even been sent to the
police. According to the Stevens Enquiry the Slane case was typical. His officers found the information
the army sent to the Special Branch often lacked even the most basic details.
Do you infer from that then that the army wanted these attacks to take place, or at least were content for
them to take place.
BENWELL: Certainly, yes.
WARE: By allowing the events to take their course.
BENWELL: By not taking any action to prevent the events taking their course as you say. It's collusion by
omission.
KERR: It was a shock to learn that the Stevens team believed the Force Research Unit to have been
deliberately withholding evidence and that we were suspected of conspiracy to murder. Needless to say, I
wish to state categorically that any such suspicions are completely groundless.
Belfast, February 1992
WARE: A trial was held but neither the colonel, nor any member of his unit was in the dock. Had this
happened, the trial would have been explosive. The secret records of how agent 6137 was run would have
been exposed. In the end just one man took the rap for everyone and everything - Brian Nelson.
Panorama 1992
CAROLE CREIGHTON
Brian Nelson's Sister
The army tried their best to get him out of that situation. They lobbied everybody. I lobbied everybody.
We kept it within the establishment because we thought the establishment will see that they have to let this
person go, they can't charge him with these things. The army lobbied to the very top, but they couldn't get
him out.
WARE: Nevertheless a deal was done. Nelson faced two counts of murder. When the trial opened, these
were suddenly dropped. In exchange Nelson pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of conspiracy to murder.
On behalf of the State the Attorney General's Representative said the deal was in the interests of justice. It
looked more like the interests of the state.
How much of the iceberg that the Nelson case has become did the public glimpse from that short court
hearing in Belfast 10 years ago?
LAURENCE SHERWOOD
Detective Chief Superintendent
Stevens Enquiry, 1989-93
I guess just the pointy bit at the top, and that is not surprising when Nelson, having pleaded guilty to a
serious of offences, then the court will have got a very... and did get a very truncated version of events.
There wasn't the examination of evidence that you would have got in a full criminal trial.
WARE: The colonel did, however, go into the witness box to speak up for Brian Nelson. Now he made
public his claim that Nelson had saved many lives, a claim that Stevens' officers had already told him was
not based on fact.
KERR: There were several occasions when targets or assassination were brought to our notice by Brian
Nelson. You wish me to quote statistics, in a period from 1985 to 1990 or up until his arrest, we produced,
on Brian Nelson's information something like 730 reports concerning threats to 217 separate individuals to
life. Threats to life of the individual on all cases. These were passed on.
NICHOLAS BENWELL
Detective Sergeant
Stevens Enquiry, 1989-94
I was incredulous, it just wasn't right, it wasn't correct. Afterwards I went through all the documents and I
could only find maybe two cases where the information given by Nelson may have been helpful tothe
security forces in preventing attacks.
JUDGE: The sentence I am about to pass will show that much of the mitigating material given forcefully
before me by...
WARE: Forcefully but not true. Yet the colonel's evidence certainly had the desired effect.
JUDGE: I give of course considerable weight to the fact that he passed on what was possible life saving
info in respect of 217 threatened individuals.
WARE: By the following day the colonel had turned Brian Nelson into a hero. Thanks to the colonel he
got just 10 years, a light sentence considering what he'd done. What the headline writers didn't realise was
that other claims made by the colonel were just as hollow as the ones he'd made in court.
KERR: I firmly believe that the purpose of running agents is not only to prevent terrorist killings but also
to bring about the arrest of terrorists.
BENWELL: I cannot think of one occasion where the information provided by Nelson led to any of the
activities you describe.
WARE: What, no terrorists arrested.
BENWELL No.
WARE: No guns recovered?
BENWELL: No.
WARE: What did the state get out of Mr Nelson then?
BENWELL: You may well ask.
WARE: So we thought we would ask, and who better to ask than the Colonel himself. These days Gordon
Kerr lives about as far away as Belfast as it's possible to get. He's in China and he's been promoted.
Today it's Brigadier Kerr, and he has one of the most prestigious postings in the Diplomatic Service. He's
our military attaché in Beijing. This morning I'm on my way to see Brigadier Kerr. Since commanding the
Force Research Unit his career has certainly blossomed. Soon after leaving Northern Ireland he was
awarded the military version of the Order of the British Empire. Well we're just entering the compound
where Brigadier Kerr lives. I have written to him a couple of times asking him to talk to me about the
Stevens Enquiry. He sent a message back through the Ministry of Defence to say he can't talk while the
Enquiry is going on. But of course the Enquiry has been investigating this matter off and on for the last 13
years. I wanted to catch the Brigadier before he left for the Embassy. I brought with me a letter setting out
the details of our allegations.
WARE: Ah, Brigadier Kerr.
KERR: Yes, good morning.
WARE: John Ware is my name from the BBC Panorama programme.
KERR: Hello John.
WARE: Good morning.
KERR: Good morning to you.
WARE: How are you?
KERR: I'm fine thank you.
WARE: I've come a long way but I've come for a good reason, and I've come for a good reason because I
want to put the seriousness of the allegations to you.
(Kerr withdraws, closing door)
WARE: As Brigadier Kerr wouldn't talk to me I delivered my letter to the British Embassy in Beijing. The
most serious allegation I wanted the Brigadier to respond to was that he and his unit had been complicit in
murder. I never got a reply. But he will have some explaining to do when he's questioned by the Stevens
Enquiry later this year. Back in Belfast Colonel Kerr and his unit were not alone in colluding with Loyalist
murder gangs. The police colluded with them too.
MICHAEL FINUCANE
Aged 17 when his father was killed
There was a bang from the hallway. My father jumped up. He slammed the door shut while my mother ran
behind him and hit the personal attack button. The next thing I remember is being on the floor against the
wall in the corner, holding my young brother and sister, and shots going off very loud and it seemed like
forever.
WARE: Pat Finucane was a solicitor. Many of his clients were IRA. The Loyalists claimed he was too.
Both the IRA and his family categorically denied this.
FINUCANE: It's an insult, and a grievous insult. It was easy for them to believe that he was a member of
the IRA. Their limited mentalities did not stretch to differentiating between the role of the lawyer and the
offence suspected of the client. The line between the two was not apparent to them.
WARE: The line became irrelevant to this man, Ken Barrett, one of the killers the agent Brian Nelson
worked closely with. Ken Barrett shot Pat Finucane and he gave us details about the weapons used.
Voice of Ken Barrett
Secret recording
No one knows this, right? Because everybody thinks he was hit by a magnum. But it was a 38 Special with
Magnum rounds. With Magnum rounds – you remember that.
WARE: Barrett says the plan to shoot Pat Finucane was suggested to him by this man in red, Jim Spence.
Spence is the classic godfather. He organised killings behind the scenes without getting his own hands
dirty, as Barrett explained to us.
Secret filming
BARRETT: If you understand what I mean, he wasn't actually involved in the business end. Do you
understand what I mean.
WARE: Okay, a commission.
BARRETT: He would have arranged, if you know what I mean, or set it up, but he wasn't actually
involved in the actual..
WARE: The execution?
BARRETT: The end product, if you get what I mean.
WARE: What Barrett says about Spence organising the 'end product' in the Finucane case is reinforced by
the secret army records. They report it was Spence who suggested the Loyalists attack Finucane. But when
Jim Spence first came up with the idea, Ken Barrett thought he was crazy.
Voice of Ken Barrett
Secret recording
I says: "Look, wait till I tell you, Jim." I says "You cant start whacking fucking solicitors here." I says:
"You'll bring the peelers down on us like a bag of fucking shite… we'll have no guns, like." I says:
"They'll raid everywhere." I says: "They'll take the fucking place apart if you start hitting the these
people." I says: "Because they'll know who it came from. They'll know who's involved, right away."
BBC NEWS
12th February 1989
Gunmen walked into Pat Finucane's home at Fort William Drive…..
WARE: The Special Branch new the names of Barrett and the other gunman within days. Neither was ever
arrested.
Voice of Ken Barrett
Secret recording
The hit went down, I wasn't arrested for the hit.
WARE: The Special Branch is the hidden intelligence gathering arm of the police in Belfast. Their job is
to give leads from informants to the ordinary detectives trying to solve murders like Pat Finucane's. But
they operate in the shadows, an all powerful, unaccountable force within a force. Although Special Branch
knew Ken Barrett had killed Pat Finucane, they withheld this from the detectives investigating his murder.
ALAN SIMPSON
Senior Investigating Officer
Finucane murder case
I was heading the Patrick Finucane investigation. I didn't get a great deal of help now from Special Branch,
and I had 20 detectives, very, very good detectives running about North Belfast trying to pick up leads on
this case.
WARE: Did you get any steers on any of the key suspects?
SIMPSON: No leads, no directions at all really from them which was quite unusual.
WARE: But two years later, one of Detective Superintendent Simpson's officers did learn all about Barrett.
On the 3rd October 1991, at Barrett's request, a Detective Sergeant, Johnston Brown, met him in a car.
Barrett was offering his services as an informer.
JOHNSTON BROWN
Detective Sergeant
Royal Ulster Constabulary, 1972-2000
So I asked him who murdered Mr Finucane and he replied straight back "Hypothetically – me." So I mean
if you had of slapped me in the face you couldn't have got my attention quicker.
WARE: According to Detective Sergeant Brown, Barrett then described in detail how he'd shot the
solicitor.
BROWN: I remember turning round in the car and looking at him, and he was sitting with his hands and
his eyes blazing and just.. pump, pump, pump. He put his hands down into the foot well of the car and he
was holding an imaginary gun, and you could where he was discharging the gun into Mr Finucane's head.
He was reliving it. It was actually happening again to him by his very actions he was expressing how he
had enjoyed it, he was boasting about it, gloating over it, and he said that as he was pumping the bullets into
this man's face they were coming back up out of the stone floor and he was still dodging them in the car
because he was reliving this trauma, there's no doubt about it. And when he sat back in the chair he said
"Nothing I say is evidence here." He's right.
WARE: Now it was right because the confession was not taken under police caution. Nevertheless it was a
starting point in getting him locked up for murder which is how Detective Sergeant Brown saw it. But with
him in the car was a Special Branch Officer.
BROWN: He made it clear, there's nothing new here, we know he done it, we know he done it. Move
away from it.
WARE: Move away from it?
BROWN: Move away from it, yes. He put that forward…
WARE: It's a very strange phrase to use, isn't it? 'Move away from it'.
BROWN: Well it is…
WARE: One police officer telling another police officer to 'move away' from solving one of the most
heinous terrorist atrocities of the troubles.
BROWN: Yes.
WARE: Special Branch also told Brown's CID bosses to 'move away' from pursuing Finucane's killer,
and what Special Branch wanted, Special Branch got.
13th February 1989
(shots of cordoned off home of Pat Finucane)
WARE: What's your view about the fact that again the Special Branch didn't avail themselves of that
opportunity? It was staring them in the face.
ALAN SIMPSON
Detective Superintendent
Royal Ulster Constabulary, 1970-93
I just can't comprehend their thinking. I'm appalled at what happened. They said at the inquest into Mr
Finucane that the killers had killed before, so here was an opportunity to take probably a serious killer off
the streets.
WARE: Detective Sergeant Brown kept meeting Barrett to try to get more evidence out of him. But the
Branch said these meetings had to cease. Extraordinarily it was from Barrett that he learnt about their next
step.
JOHNSTON BROWN
Detective Sergeant
Royal Ulster Constabulary, 1972-2000
He said that he'd been in the car with a number of Special Branch officers who sat with him and told him
that I was treading on too many toes, that I was to be removed from the Belfast Regiment, that they were
going to put a threat on me.
WARE: Who was going to put a threat on you?
BROWN: Special Branch.
WARE: Ken Barrett told you that there was going to be a threat against your life?
BROWN: Yes, a murderer tells me that my colleagues are going to rid themselves of me out of Belfast
because I'm treading on toes.
WARE: Three days later, what Barrett had warned would happen, did happen.
BROWN: A detective chief superintendent said that a serious Loyalist threat had been received by Special
Branch that my life was in danger.
WARE: The threat was a threat to your family?
BROWN: A threat to my life and the lives of my family, yes indeed.
WARE: Purportedly from a Loyalist source.
BROWN: Yes indeed.
WARE: Received by Special Branch.
BROWN: Yes indeed.
WARE: Coming a few days after Barrett himself had predicted that's exactly what was going to happen.
BROWN: Yes.
WARE: That wasn't a coincidence.
BROWN: They would say it was, but no.
WARE: Detective Sergeant Brown took this threat seriously and finally backed off. There the matter
rested for another seven years until the RUC were forced to have outsiders investigate once again.
Sir JOHN STEVENS
Head of Stevens Enquiry
For clarity I will refer to this investigation that we start today as 'Stevens 3'.
WARE: John Stevens had already twice investigated Security Force links in the Finucane murder, first in
1989, then in 1993. Now, for the third time in 10 years he was back in Belfast.
STEVENS: I have assembled 20 detectives, an independent team of investigators with current and former
officers from the Metropolitan Police Service and the Northumbria Police.
WARE: An early visitor to the new Stevens Enquiry was Detective Sergeant Johnston Brown, which was
when the threats to him from his colleagues in Special Branch began all over again.
BROWN: I was confronted by a Special Branch colleague. He says: "If we put a bar up, or an obstacle up,
be like the rest of them, don't go over it or under it, go away." He says: "You walked into the offices of
English detectives and you spoke about us and you think there's no come back, you think there's no
retribution. You listen to me…" And he lost it. He threatened me. He said that "We'll send our Ninja
men in to your house, there's not a lock that we can't get past. And they'll come out of your loft with a wee
bag" he says "with a couple of dirty LVF guns in it.
WARE: Loyalist guns.
BROWN: Yes, Loyalist Volunteer Force. I knew by I could see his eyes bulge and his neck bulging and
his very demeanour he mean this. It was such a confrontation I shall never forget, and he said "They'll
come down out of that loft with these guns, are they yours Jonty or maybe they're… are they your sons?
You think about that.
WARE: Detective Sergeant Brown gave a statement to the Stevens Enquiry that there was a tape of
Barrett's confession to the murder of Pat Finucane. This has been secretly recorded by the Branch at
Brown's first meeting with Barrett on the 3rd October 1991. Stevens asked the Branch for the tape, and a
tape labelled the 3rd was handed over. But when Stevens played it back, they thought Brown had been
wasting their time.
BROWN: Once I'd made the statement and signed it they told me there was no confession.
WARE: On the 3rd.
BROWN: They had.. on the tape, yes, they asked me was an audio not a record that you couldn't question,
independent audio record of what was said and I said well my notes are here and that's all I can do.
WARE: Although the Special Branch had labelled the tape the 3rd, it was in fact a tape of the second
meeting Brown had had with Barrett on the 10th. The same Branch Officer had been present and the
questions had been identical – almost.
BROWN: Mr Barent was repeatedly saying "What's he asked me that for, what's he asked me… we went
over this last week. It's going over the same ground. It's going over the same ground. And I was sitting as
perplexed as he was.
WARE: So your Special Branch colleague was asking exactly the same questions that you had asked the
previous week…
BROWN: Yes.
WARE: With the one exception.
BROWN: The murder of Mr Finucane – out.
WARE: What's now clear is that the tape of the 10th had been relabelled the 3rd and that the meeting of the
10th had been a set up by the Branch to recreate the official record of the 3rd but with Barrett's murder
confession erased. Why would the Special Branch want to wipe any evidence, remove any evidence, of
there having been a confession to the Finucane murder? Why would they want to do that?
BROWN: I can't answer for Special Branch. I have asked them time and time and time again, and I
haven't got any answers from them, and I don't expect to get any answers from them. Are you asking me
am I surprised that this happened? No I'm not.
WARE: The official Special Branch record of Ken Barrett's confession to the murder of Patrick Finucane
may have disappeared, but at least there is now a record – our tapes, and they run to many hours. These
tapes may help explain why the Special Branch went to such extraordinary lengths to prevent Ken Barrett
from being brought to justice. Barrett says he was encouraged to shoot Pat Finucane by a police officer.
This officer, he says, tried to convince him the solicitor was in the IRA.
Secret Filming
WARE: When you met him first time, what did he actually say to you about Finucane?
BARRETT: Just that Pat was one of their men, you know – he was an IRA man, like. And he was dealing
with finances and stuff for them, and he was a bad boy and if he was out, like, they'd have a lot of trouble
replacing him. Stuff like this, you know.
WARE: Barrett also told us that the police officer assisted his murder gang. An hour before the murder
soldiers and policemen had been searching lockup garages for weapons near the solicitors home. Barrett
says a message was relayed from the officer via a call box close to where Barrett and his fellow gunmen
were waiting.
Secret filming
WARE: The road block had been taken down. And that's what this guy was telling you - the road block
had gone.
BARRETT: All clear. That meant there's no, say, presence in the area, if you know what I mean?
Voice of Ken Barrett
Secret recording
Now, you couldn't phone me and say "Everything's clear" unless you know where the police are at that
particular time. It's a brave drive.
WARE: Barrett also says the Loyalist godfather, Jim Spence, who wanted the solicitor shot, had introduced
him to this police officer.
Voice of Ken Barrett
Secret recording
He says: "You're more, well, how do you put it.. " He says: You're more the psychopath than what Spence
is." He says: You're more a one for business here, aren't you?" I says: "What do you mean, business?"
He says: "No, you want Provies buried." I says: "Aye, of course I do." He says: I understand where I
stand." I says: "Yes, every time." I says: "You do the business for us. If in the near future we can help you
at any stage, that'll be done." He says: "Yes, as long as we're on the same wavelength."
WARE: Over the years Spence and his police friend have stayed tuned. In the summer of 1999 the police
set out at dawn to bring Spence and Barrett in for questioning by the Stevens Enquiry. It was 6am, but
Spence was already dressed and sipping a cup of tea. He'd been tipped off. Barrett says he was tipped off
too.
Voice of Ken Barrett
Secret recording
Spence says to me: "If you want to give your man a ring he'll let you know the ins and outs." I rang him
and he rang me the next day. They thought they'd surprised everybody. And when they were arresting me,
I went out to get into the car and he says to me: "Did you know you were being arrested this morning?" I
says: "What makes you think that?" He says: "You don't look very surprised to see us. I said: "No."
WARE: Jim Spence is one of Belfast's untouchables. The police know he's organised murders but he's
never spent a day in gaol for this. The protective arm of Spence and his police and murder gang associates
extends to everyone involved in Pat Finucane's murder, provided they play the game. Billy Stobie didn't.
He was a weak link in the chain. He told us Spence asked him to produce guns for Pat Finucane's murder.
Voice of Billy Stobie
Recorded 6th September 2001
STOBIE: I was told to get two 9mm Brownings.
WARE: By whom?
STOBIE: By Spence.
WARE: When?
STOBIE: I seen Spence on the Tuesday, right?
WARE: Right.
STOBIE: And then I took a 9mm Browning and a Heckler & Koch, and the conversation was that, "I'd
need two 9mm Brownings and the Heckler & Koch only carries 9 shots and the 9mm Browning carries 13."
WARE: Billy Stobie was charged with Pat Finucane's murder by the Stevens Enquiry. When we talked to
him at his home on the Fourth River Estate he was awaiting trial. Not much moves on this bleak Loyalist
stronghold without Jim Spence knowing about it.
Voice of Ken Barrett
Secret recording
Spence is fucking cracking up, he's going through the roof. He phoned me and he says: "You know where
them other two fuckers are?" I says: "Who?" He says: "Your man from Panorama." I says: "No." He
says: "They're in Strobie's house." He says: "Fuck this. Something will have to be done. Stobie will be
lucky if he sees his fucking trial."
WARE: Stobie did live to see his trial – but only just.
BBC News
12th December 2001
The Red Hand Defenders have said they carried out the murder of William Stobie…
WARE: Billy Stobie talked too much, not just to me but to several others.
NEWS: …. shot dead in the Falls River area of North Belfast early this morning.
WARE: One weak link down and one to go. Spence suspected Ken Barrett was talking to us. Graffiti
appeared mocking him as a one time police informer. Barrett knew his days were numbered. Barrett went
on the run. He flew to Birmingham where we met him and again secretly filmed him.
Secret filming
Clutching his belongings in just a plastic bag, Barrett explained why he thought he and Stobie had become
scapegoats for Spence and his police friends.
Voice of Ken Barrett
Secret recording
The killing of Pat Finucane was organised by the police. The dogs in the street know that. Everybody
knows that. He set the murder up. They wanted Finucane dead.
WARE: Barrett again spoke of the police officer he says Spence introduced him to, how the police had
urged Loyalists to shoot the solicitor and how this officer had appealed to him in person to do it.
Voice of Ken Barrett
Secret recording
They know who killed Pat Finucane. They orchestrated it from the start.
WARE: Barrett says he never knew the real name of this police officer, but we do, and we have established
that he was a member of Special Branch based in Belfast here at Castlereagh. We also know a bit about his
past. Reliable police sources have provided us with evidence that this officer urged a Loyalist gunman to
shoot a suspected IRA man in 1990…
Secret filming
… which is what Barrett said the officer urged him to do a year earlier to Pat Finucane. But now the man
who'd killed him was in fear of his own life, in fear of the very people who'd set up the murder in the first
place. Barrett had nowhere left to run.
Voice of Ken Barrett
Secret recording
There's no heroes at this fucking game. You're buried on the Monday, you're talked about on till
Wednesday and the drinking stops on the Friday. What would you do, John, honestly?
WARE: What Barrett wasn't going to do was hand himself over to the Stevens Enquiry.
BARRETT: You know what they'll do to me?
WARE: What, what?
BARRETT: They'll charge me. They'll charge me and they'll stand by them ones, believe me, John.
WARE: So Barrett took his chances and flew back to Northern Ireland lying low at this hotel in Ballymena.
One day he found it surrounded by armed police.
Voice of Ken Barrett
Secret recording
And this peeler, Detective Chief Inspector somebody, phoned the hotel room and says: "I need to speak to
you." I says: "What's it regarding?" He says: "Your personal safety." He says: "How long do you intend
staying in Ballymena?" I says: "I don't know." He says: "Well I don't advise you to stay here too long."
WARE: Ken Barrett thought the threat was from his own side, from Jim Spence and the murder gangs he
once worked with, and so it was. What Barrett didn't know was that they'd learnt the location of the hotel
he was hiding at from a police officer. I understand that Barrett had telephoned the officer seeking his
advice about what to do next. It's alleged that the officer then tipped off Barrett's former friends who
wanted him dead.
Secret filming
WARE: Barrett was being burned by both sides, his own and a renegade officer from a force that had
protected him from prosecution for so long. There was only one place left to run – England and the Stevens
Enquiry who were investigating the darker forces of the state.
Can I ask you about the Special Branch. Are they a significant part of your enquiry, are they indeed at the
heart of your enquiry?
Sir JOHN STEVENS
Commissioner, Metropolitan Police
The Special Branch, the army FRU organisation, or parts of the security apparatus, are at the very heart of
our investigation.
WARE: The heart of that security apparatus is MI5, supposedly the eyes and ears of Whitehall.
(Replay – a woman's screams as killers break in)
WARE: MI5 is operated extensively in Northern Ireland. Twelve years ago when John Stevens set foot
there MI5 signed statements to say they knew virtually nothing about collusion. That was quite simply
untrue. We understand that almost everything we've disclosed in our two programmes about army and
police complicity with Loyalist murder gangs was known to MI5 at the time. Why? Because MI5 had
direct access to all the army's damning secret files on a daily basis.
What's more, we understand that MI5 has a crucial piece of intelligence that does suggest the police were
involved in the murder of Pat Finucane. I'm told that this intelligence is consistent with Ken Barrett's
account to us of police assistance in the murder, and yet it's only recently that this vital information was
handed over to the Stevens Enquiry. In other words, it's taken 12 years and 3 major police enquiries to get
it out of MI5.
Just one question, if I may, about the security service. I understand that MI5 were aware of Nelson's illegal
activities and that they also knew about the role of the police in the Pat Finucane murder. What's your
response to that?
STEVENS: I've got no comment on that. We're still pursuing the enquiry. We've still got people to
interview, we've still got people to reinterview on the enquiry, and we'll continue to do that until I'm
satisfied we've got to the bottom of what took place.
WARE: So have you got questions for the security service?
STEVENS: We've got questions for everybody in relation to that.
MICHAEL FINUCANE
I don't think my family should have been made to wait 13 years. I don't think all of the other families, the
exact number of whom is yet to be determined, should be made to wait this length of time for proper
answers.
WARE: But many of the answers are still buried in the darkest recesses of the state. Like the names of
those who used and protected the men who pulled the trigger.
FINUCANE: I don't think about them terribly much. I think about the people behind them, and they have
no face and they have no persona and they exist only perhaps in the shape of a bureaucratic suit, but they're
there and I'm determined to make them accountable.
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