RUC use DHSS info in recruitment attempt
by Laura Friel
Melissa McKenna is a young single mother living alone. She became
the fifth person in the Lurgan area to be targeted by the RUC
Special Branch in recent weeks.
Letters and money have been left at her home in a crude attempt
to pressurise her into acting as an informer. Two months ago
Melissa was interviewed by the DHSS fraud squad. ``At the time I
thought the interview was a little strange. The DHSS officer said
I had been investigated but the allegations against me had
already been established by the DHSS as untrue. So why was I
being interviewed?''
The DHSS officer told Melissa they had suspected she had been
working selling insurance but their investigations had revealed
it was not the case. ``My sister is employed with an insurance
company,'' says Melissa, ``we don't even look alike.''
Melissa was asked if she was cohabiting and then allowed to go.
``I didn't think about it again, ``says Melissa, ``until two weeks
later I received a letter through the door.''
The letter had been delivered by hand, it contained a £20 note
and a hand written message.
Three weeks later a second letter arrived, this time pushed
through an open back window. ``There isn't even easy access to my
back garden,'' says Melissa, ``someone must have pushed their way
through the hedge.'' The letter, written by the same hand on
similar note paper contained another £20.
Melissa has not yet been approached directly by the RUC. ``I want
the RUC to stop trying to intimidate and entrap me,'' she says, ``I
have contacted my solicitor who has already raised the issue with
the DHSS. My message to the RUC is leave me alone.''
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