Remembering this week Oglach Michael Tighe age 17 who died 24 November 1982 who killed by undercover Royal Ulster Constabulary members at farm, Ballynerry Road North, near Lurgan, County Armagh. Fuair siad bas ar son saoirse na hEireann, dílis ar son Éire Aontaithe, I ndíl cuimhne i gcónaí. Fíor Gael e It is known that MI5 officers destroyed a secret tape containing vital evidence of that this a was murder in the shoot-to-kill British Army operations in the Northern part of Ireland, Michael Tighe, a 17-year-old was shot dead and his friend, Martin McCauley, 19, was seriously wounded by RUC anti-terrorist officers in a hayshed a few miles from Lurgan, county Armagh, in October 1982. John Stalker, Manchesters deputy chief constable, was appointed to head an inquiry into this and a number of other shoot to kill allegations, he discovered that the hayshed had been bugged. The tape that would have the answers to the questions at the trial - was McCauley right in claiming he and Tighe were given no warning before they were shot? - had been allegedly been destroyed. What was not known was that a copy had been taken by a soldier from the armys special collation team monitoring the MI5 bug. John Stalker recommended that the MI5 officers should be prosecuted for perverting the course of justice, however Government ministers agreed to cover up the evidence in the public interest” John Stalker was removed from his inquiry in controversial circumstances and was replaced by Colin Sampson, chief constable of west Yorkshire. Both his and Mr Stalkers reports were kept secret, it is known that both Mr Sampson and John Stalker recommended the prosecution of RUC officers for fabricating cover stories. Mr Sampson said MI5 officers should have be charged for destroying the copy of the crucial tape. Mr Sampson and Sir Barry Shaw, Northern Irelands director of public prosecutions, were prepared to have the evidence presented to the court. Sir Patrick Mayhew, the then attorney general, and Tom King, then Northern Ireland secretary, knew that the prospect of charges against MI5 activities not an option for the British Government. A lot of intelligence matters would have been brought out that would have been deleterious to the intelligence operation that was essential in the circumstances, Sir Patrick told the BBC. Sir Robert Andrew, permanent secretary at the Northern Ireland Office said There was an argument for saying that prosecutions should have been brought to clear the air and to demonstrate that the government was not covering up illegal activities. On the other hand, there was a fear that if police officers, and even more so, officers from the security service, were put in the dock and had to answer questions on oath, intelligence-gathering methods and the identity of individuals would have become known and prejudiced [their] effectiveness. Sir Robert said his then political master, Tom King, judged that a prosecution was undesirable. ©MMcNally
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 23:45:00 +0000
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