Trial hears of British collusion to import and hide weapons

The British Crown forces permitted loyalist death squads to import and distribute a shipment of weapons for use in a series of sectarian murders across the north of Ireland, the High Court has heard.

A judge was told former British Army agent Brian Nelson was linked to the operation to smuggle in the batch of guns from Beirut during the late 1980s.

The allegation were made in a legal action mounted by relatives of two victims of the pro-British murder campaign.

Patrick Frizzell and Margaret Lundy are both suing the PSNI (formerly RUC) police and the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) for enabling the loyalist groups to buy and ship the armaments into the jurisdiction.

In March 1991 Mr Frizzell’s brother, Brian Frizzell, was shot dead along with Eileen Duffy, 19, and 16-year-old Katrina Rennie by the unionist paramilitary UVF in Craigavon, County Armagh.

Mrs Lundy’s husband, Alan Lundy, was gunned down by a UDA unit in May 1993 while carrying out construction work at the west Belfast home of Sinn Fein representative Alex Maskey.

It was argued police and MI5 knew about loyalist plans to import hundreds of rifles, pistols and grenades via South Africa but did nothing to intercept the shipment.

In early 1988 police uncovered some of the Czech VZ58-type rifles, Browning 9mm pistols, Soviet anti-personnel grenades, a rocket-propelled launcher, ammunition, magazines, and pouches at locations in Belfast and Portadown.

But it is alleged that other imported weapons were stored by County Armagh farmer James Mitchell and moved to safety after the RUC warned him about an imminent raid.

Mitchell, a former police reservist who died in 2008, had a conviction for a previous arms dump discovered on his premises near Glenanne during the 1970s.

Mr Frizzell and Mrs Lundy are suing the police and MoD, claiming misfeasance in public office and negligence in allowing the weapons into Ireland.

With writs lodged in connection with a number of other conflict killings connected to the same imported guns, their actions have been identified as lead cases.

A five-day trial is currently underway.

Although most of the case is being heard in closed session due to Crown Force claims regarding British “national security”, barristers representing the plaintiffs made statements in an open courtroom filled with the families of other victims.

Frank O’Donoghue, for Mrs Lundy, argued: “Agents of the state were aware of, permitted the use of and failed to prevent the use of at least one of the weapons used in this concerted murderous attack upon (her husband).”

It was alleged that the British military support team for their agent Brian Nelson (pictured), who operated as the UDA’s intelligence chief, would have had full knowledge that the guns had been imported into the North.

The court was told Nelson played a prominent role in the importing the weapons, one of which caused the death of Mr Lundy.

“The fact this attack occurred using this weaponry is the product of the defendant’s collusive conduct with Protestant paramilitaries,” Mr O’Donoghue said, and the murder had “irrevocably” changed the lives of Mrs Lundy and the couple’s five children.

Brian Fee, representing Patrick Frizzell, explained how some of the imported rifles and pistols were used by loyalist paramilitaries in a series of other murders and attempted murders.

Based on partial information available from previous investigations and a Police Ombudsman report into the Loughinisland murders, he set out a series of questions for the court to explore during the closed session.

Mr Fee sought answers on how intelligence about the weapons importation was received and assessed, as well as querying why James Mitchell was not questioned or his farm identified sooner as a potential location for the loading of arms.

“Who was informed of the plan to search the farm, why was it not searched earlier, did someone inform Mitchell of the intended search and, if so, who?” he asked.

“If police knew that they had only recovered a portion of the weapons which had been imported into the country, what steps were taken to recover the remainder and were those steps adequate?”

Urgent Appeal