Compiled by Sean Magill from reports in An Phoblacht/Republican News
The trial of British intelligence agent Brian Nelson clearly indicates that British collusion with loyalist death squads remains sanctioned from the highest levels of the British establishment. That conspiracy was neatly symbolised when British Prime Minister John Major met the head of the judiciary in Northern Ireland, and the trial judge in the Nelson case, Lord Chief Justice Brian Hutton, in Belfast.
The Nelson trial opened after a series of delays at Belfast Crown Court on January 22. In what was described by the English newspaper Independent as a "last minute legal trade-off", 15 of the 34 charges against the British army agent, including the two charges of murder, were dropped by the crown in return for guilty pleas on lesser charges.
The deal prevented the full details and extent of crown forces' collusion with loyalist death squads coming out in court. Had the case been contested, the British authorities would have been faced with the possibility of Nelson's 'handlers' in the crown forces and others described as being in "sensitive posts" being cross-examined. The deal, in the words of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, was obviously "struck to protect British interests and could not have occurred without sanction from the highest political levels".
During final defence submissions, an unidentified British army officer, referred to only as "Colonel", praised Nelson's work as a British army operative. The officer, who travelled from Europe to attend the trial, told the court that although Nelson led a schizophrenic existence and became torn between his loyalties to his handlers and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and their illegal military wing, the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), his primary loyalty was at all times to the British army.
He told how Nelson, who had been in the British navy and the Black Watch, was brought to the Six Counties in 1987 from Germany, where he had been working, in order to infiltrate the UDA/UFF. The agent was a most prolific provider of information but led a schizophrenic existence, torn between his handlers and his UDA buddies.
The web of intrigue within which British crown forces collude with and manipulate loyalist death squads, and the official and judicial sanction collusion enjoys, can be illustrated by the case of Terence McDaid, mistakenly killed in place of the
intended target, his brother Declan.
To echo the words of his widow, Maura, three people working for the British army implicated in the murder, including Nelson, have been allowed to walk free. The first was Corporal Cameron Hastie, a British soldier attached to the Royal Scots Regiment. It was Hastie who first passed on to crown forces details regarding Declan McDaid, the intended target and brother of the victim, to Joanne Garvin, a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment, in full knowledge that the information would be passed by her to the UDA and used to assist a loyalist death squad to target its victim.
Neither Hastie nor Garvin was charged with conspiracy to murder, despite the fact that their actions had directly led to the UDA killing. Instead the two were charged with making the document available to a third person.
Hastie received a conditional discharge and was allowed to return to his regiment in Scotland as a training instructor, a position he continues to hold today. Despite the fact that Garvin admitted she knew that the information would be used to kill Catholics, she was given an 18-month suspended sentence.
The information "leaked" by Hastie and Garvin was finally to fall into Brian Nelson's hands in his role as intelligence officer for the UDA. Nelson, while still acting as a British army agent, targeted McDaid and passed his details on to UDA assassin Winkie Dodds. Despite the fact that details of the planned killing were passed to the British army by their agent Nelson, no action was taken to prevent the killing.
Nelson was eventually convicted of 11 counts of "possession of documents likely to be useful to terrorists", three counts of collecting information, possession of firearms with intent and five counts of conspiracy to murder. Judge Kelly sentenced Nelson to 11 terms of three years' imprisonment, three terms of four years, one term of six years and five terms of 10 years.
Although Nelson was sentenced to a total of 101 years, the decision by the judge that sentences would run concurrently means that Nelson will be held in prison for a maximum of four years and eight months.
The main plank of Nelson's defence was that his role as a British army agent within the UDA inevitably led to implication in the sectarian and murderous activities of this organisation, but that this was excusable by the fact that Nelson's role in the British army was to facilitate the "saving of lives" by passing information on loyalist
attacks.
The claim is exposed for what it is in the light of the fact that when Nelson was recruited by the British army he had already been convicted of a brutal sectarian attack.
In March 1973, Nelson and two other members of the UDA kidnapped a Catholic man as he was out walking and took him to a UDA club, where their victim was systematically beaten, tortured and electrocuted. Brian Nelson was later convicted for the attack and jailed for seven years. This "courageous act" was conveniently swept under the carpet, as was the central role of British intelligence in coordinating the murderous activities of Nelson and his cohorts.