Historic ruling blocks PSNI payoff

A man targeted by the PSNI as a potential state informer has secured an unprecedented court ruling to prevent the Crown forces from paying money directly into his bank account.

The man launched a challenge after he received a call on his mobile phone from the PSNI police last month.

During the call the man was asked about several republicans and later told that cash was going to be deposited in his account several days later. It is believed those involved were attached to the PSNI’s ‘C3’ unit, formerly known as Special Branch.

Fearing execution by republican armed groups, the man immediately launched a legal action in a bid to stop cash being transferred.

The man’s lawyer, Michael Brentnall said the High Court had put in place an interim order to stop the PSNI from transferring funds into the bank account.

“This was done in order to protect our client’s human rights which have undoubtedly been put at risk by the threat of the transfer of monies,” he said.

It is not the first time that the British Crown forces have been accused of putting cash into people’s bank accounts.

Last November north Belfast woman Arlene Shannon reported that British military intelligence, MI5, lodged 300 pounds in her bank without her permission.

Earlier this month County Fermanagh woman Sharon Boyle also revealed that two PSNI men gave her chain store gift cards valued at three hundred pounds after she was approached at her home in Enniskillen.

INFORMER IDENTIFIED

Meanwhile, a leaked document appears to have confirmed that a second state agent was working at a senior level within the Provisional IRA in south Down in the 1990s.

Details of the secret document emerged last month when a former official at the Police Ombudsman’s Office was arrested by officers in England. The document is said to include previously unconfirmed details about an informer operating at a senior level in Newry over two decades ago.

It was previously known that a British agent called Peter Keeley, who used the name Kevin Fulton - had infiltrated the Provisional IRA in the city on behalf of the British army’s Force Research Unit.

It is understood the leaked document confirms for the first time that a second informer was also active in the area and was operated in tandem with Keeley, who he was reporting on.

The development will have implications for legacy investigations in the area involving Fulton, including the 1998 murder of republican Eoin Morley, who had wrongly been accused of being an informer.

Urgent Appeal