14th Intelligence Company
01 January 1991
14th Intelligence Company
artdoc August=1993
The role of one of the British Army's undercover unit in the
killing of three men robbing a bookmakers' shop in Belfast's
Falls Road on 13 January 1990, is described in detail in a new
pamphlet. Published to coincide with the inquest into the three
deaths, the pamphlet shows how 14th Intelligence Company, a
surveillance unit, which usually leaves `executive action' to the
SAS, misinformed the RUC and the government on at least eight
points over the incident. The Secretary of State at the time, Sir
Peter Brooke, stated in the Commons that members of the unit had
stumbled across the robbery by chance. They had seen two armed
and hooded men leave a car and enter a shop. Following the
incident, he said, the soldiers had difficulty leaving the scene
because a crowd and black taxis began to block the road -
invoking images of the infamous two corporals killing. In fact
four men were involved in the robbery, one of whom survived and
whose statement, along with those of other eye-witnesses,
contradicted the official military version of events on many
points.
The pamphlet argues that the calculated ferocity of the
killings suggests that the shootings did not arise by accident.
One theory is that the robbers had been under surveillance for
some time and that they were eliminated because they came to have
possession of intelligence documents which included large-scale
maps of West Belfast with particular houses marked with numerical
codes. The documents plus two weapons had been stolen from a car
belonging to 14th Intelligence Company by joyriders and then sold
to the gang which eventually carried out the robbery. Military
intelligence may have believed that the documentation was passed
on the IRA or had been studied closely by the robbers. The
surviving member of the gang, however, claims, that the documents
were destroyed because they could see no use for them.
The inquest into the killings began in April but was
immediately stalled by legal argument over the Secretary of
State's issuing of a public interest immunity (Pii) certificate
(see Statewatch, vol 3 no 3). `National security' allows the
issue of a Pii certificate which typically applies to the
concealment of documentation or oral evidence relating to
documentation. But on this occasion the Pii referred to no
documents, effectively providing a blanket ban on oral evidence
by soldiers. The Pii also invoked the screening of witnesses. The
coroner, John Leckey, clearly disapproved of this attempt by the
Ministry of Defence to widen the use of Pii's and ruled that the
certificate was issued on invalid grounds - the undercover
soldiers would have to appear and give evidence in open court.
The Ministry of Defence took the case to the High Court which
quashed the coroner's decision in early July. For further
information about Pre-inquest statement on the killings at Sean
Graham's Bookmakers on the Falls Road in January 1990, contact
the Committee on the Administration of Justice on 0232-232394.
Statewatch vol 3 no 4 July-August 1993