MI5 court appearance
01 March 1993
After a two month trial and four days deliberating their verdict the jury at Caernarfon crown court found a young Welshman, Sion Roberts, guilty of sending four incendiary devices to prominent Conservatives and senior police officers. The same jury acquitted two others, David Davies and Dewi Williams, of conspiracy to cause explosions (Roberts was also acquitted on this charge). Dewi Williams had been described by the prosecution of being the articulate leader of the group. This was the first trial in which MI5 officers gave evidence in court.
The trial arose out of the second homes arson campaign organised by Meibion Glyndwyr which has produced more than 200 reported incidents since 1979. The prosecution case rested on investigations by the North Wales police, its Special Branch and Special Operation Unit and MI5 (the internal Security Service). The cornerstone of the case against three men was the "terrorist cell theory" which the jury rejected in throwing out serious charges of conspiracy.
In November 1991 there were 38 MI5 officers following Roberts at a protest march in Caernarfon. A few days earlier over 20 MI5 officers kept Davies under observation. This surveillance was supplemented by burglary and bugging (for this MI5 would need a warrant signed by the Home Secretary, see Statewatch vol 1 no 2). In November 1991 MI5 agents entered Roberts's flat and placed bugs and hidden videos cameras in it (some of the tapes were shown to the jury). On 5 December they entered his flat again and the four officers found explosive devices - Roberts' defence counsel unsuccessfully argued that the agents planted this evidence because of their inability to find hard evidence. These two operations were code-named "Seabird" and "Mountain".
The day after the second raid four suspicious packages were found at Bangor post office - one was left to experts and two were taken by a policewoman in the back of her car to the police station. The three defendants were arrested in December 1991 and held in custody until their trial in January 1993.
The trial
The three men were charged with conspiracy to cause explosions during 1991 and Roberts was also charged with possession of explosives and sending devices through the post with intent to maim or disfigure four men - Detective Inspector Maldwyn Roberts (head of a special squad investigating Meibion Glyndwyr); Sir Wyn Roberts MP (Minister of State for Wales); Elwyn Jones, Conservative agent for North Wales; and Chief Superintendent Gwyn Williams, head of North Wales CID.
At the beginning of the trial the judge, Mr Justice Pill, rejected a prosecution request for the proceedings to be held in camera he also rejected a public interest immunity certificate signed by the Home Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, designed to suppress all evidence relating to MI5's activities. Four MI5 agents gave evidence, Messrs A, B, C, and D, from behind a specially erected screen. They admitted, in giving evidence, that they had taken no contemporaneous notes during the operation.
Near the end of the trial, on 3 March, the Attorney General, Sir Nicholas Lyell, confirmed that: "an authorised jury vet was carried out... I authorised the jury check". Jury vetting can be ordered, according to the guidelines, only when a case concerns serious offences where strong political motives were involved such as IRA and other terrorist cases and cases under the Official Secrets Act . By this process potential jurors are weeded after checks police, Special Branch and MI5 - defence lawyers never know who has been "weeded" out.
This was the latest in a string of unsuccessful police raids and trials against Meibion Glyndwyr. In 1980 the police detained 52 people without charging any of them in "Operation Fire". In 1983 the Cardiff Explosives and Conspiracy trial the jury failed to accept the conspiracy charges and three of the defendants were found not guilty. In February 1990 Bryn Fon, Mei Jones, Anna Williams an