Brian Nelson (1948–2003)
Encyclopedia
Brian Nelson was a Northern Ireland
British Army
Intelligence Corps agent who also operated as the intelligence chief of the loyalist
Ulster Defence Association
(UDA) paramilitary organisation.
, served with the Black Watch
regiment before joining the UDA in the early 1970s, where he was a low-level informant. In 1974 he was jailed for seven years for the kidnap and torture of Gerald Higgins, a partially sighted Roman Catholic man who died shortly afterwards. Nelson served three years He left for a construction job in West Germany
but in 1985 British Military Intelligence
asked him to rejoin and infiltrate the UDA. He became the organisation's senior intelligence officer where he received assistance from his handlers who, in one instance, organised, streamlined and returned to Nelson a suitcase full of disorganised UDA intelligence.
was appointed to investigate collusion between the paramilitaries and the Royal Ulster Constabulary
(RUC). Stevens was able to use advanced fingerprint technology, then unavailable to the RUC. The Inquiry team discovered Nelson's fingerprints on some security force documents and they began the investigations that, despite the obstructions encountered, would eventually lead to Nelson's arrest.
When the Stevens Inquiry Team arrested Nelson, he immediately pressed upon them that he had been acting on behalf on the British Government. Stevens spoke to John Deverell, head of MI5
in Belfast, who confirmed that Nelson worked for the British Army and not the RUC. However, as the RUC had supremacy, they should have been in full control. Sharp disagreements developed between the two security branches as the extent of Nelson's illegal activities within the Force Research Unit
(FRU) was uncovered.
Over two months Nelson dictated a police statement covering 650 pages. He revealed that he had been tasked by both the British Army and the Protestant paramilitaries to make the UDA a more effective killing machine. Using information that should have been confidential to the army he produced dossiers or "Intelligence Packages" including backgrounds, addresses, photos and movements on proposed targets. These were then passed on to the killers.
In one instance the paramilitaries requested information on 14 prospective Sinn Féin
councillors. Nelson passed on the names of only ten people to his FRU handlers claiming he could not remember the others. Those ten were never targeted while the other four, including solicitor Pat Finucane, were all shot dead. In John Stevens' words "the FRU had been inexcusably careless in failing to protect the four who lost their lives."
Nelson also handed out his blue cards, between twenty and fifty at a time, to members of the Ulster Volunteer Force. The FRU had no agents within the UVF and these people were consequently unprotected.
Fortunately for the Stevens Inquiry, many killers never bothered to destroy their blue cards and the team was able to obtain fingerprint evidence.
President, Gerry Adams
. The early warning meant that only three had been subsequently killed. Nelson further claimed that he had warned Military Intelligence of the UFF plans to kill solicitor Pat Finucane, but that Mr Finucane had not been given the warning.
Eventually Nelson pleaded guilty to 20 charges, including five of conspiracy to murder and was sentenced to 10 years. However, a number of charges against Nelson, including two murders, were quietly dropped as part of his plea agreement.
programme "Dirty War", broadcast on 8 June 1992, made new claims about Nelson's involvement in further murders and conspiracies. One allegation was that, following a tip off from Nelson, army intelligence kept secret a plot to murder Paddy McGrory, a solicitor representing the families of the Gibraltar Three. A further claim was that soldiers aided Nelson's research on behalf of the UFF by photographing IRA member Anto Murray's home. It was further alleged that Nelson's army handlers encouraged him to bomb a Cork
oil refinery.
In January 1993 Gerry Adams claimed that the Government was fully aware of Nelson's involvement in the January 1988 import of weapons from South Africa including 200 AK47 rifles; 90 Browning pistols; 500 fragmentation grenades and 12 RPG 7 rocket launchers. This, together with the reliance by loyalists on leaked, though often outdated, intelligence files on potential targets, meant that by 1992, loyalists were once again killing more than the republicans, a situation not seen since 1975.
Previously Northern Ireland Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, had claimed that the Nelson affair was dead and buried. However, in May 1993, a San Francisco judge, in the extradition case of escaped maze prisoner, James Joseph Smyth, demanded disclosure in court of suppressed reports including documents on Nelson or risk having the case abandoned.
, West Belfast.
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
Intelligence Corps agent who also operated as the intelligence chief of the loyalist
Ulster loyalism
Ulster loyalism is an ideology that is opposed to a united Ireland. It can mean either support for upholding Northern Ireland's status as a constituent part of the United Kingdom , support for Northern Ireland independence, or support for loyalist paramilitaries...
Ulster Defence Association
Ulster Defence Association
The Ulster Defence Association is the largest although not the deadliest loyalist paramilitary and vigilante group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 and undertook a campaign of almost twenty-four years during "The Troubles"...
(UDA) paramilitary organisation.
Early life
Nelson, a Protestant from the Shankill Road, BelfastShankill Road, Belfast
The Shankill Road is the arterial road leading through a predominantly loyalist working-class area of Belfast, Northern Ireland, known as the Shankill. The road stretches westwards for approximately from central Belfast and is lined, to an extent, by shops. The residents live in the many streets...
, served with the Black Watch
Black Watch
The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The unit's traditional colours were retired in 2011 in a ceremony led by Queen Elizabeth II....
regiment before joining the UDA in the early 1970s, where he was a low-level informant. In 1974 he was jailed for seven years for the kidnap and torture of Gerald Higgins, a partially sighted Roman Catholic man who died shortly afterwards. Nelson served three years He left for a construction job in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
but in 1985 British Military Intelligence
Military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....
asked him to rejoin and infiltrate the UDA. He became the organisation's senior intelligence officer where he received assistance from his handlers who, in one instance, organised, streamlined and returned to Nelson a suitcase full of disorganised UDA intelligence.
Stevens Inquiry
In the early 1990s, following the shooting of Loughlin Maginn, John StevensJohn Stevens, Baron Stevens of Kirkwhelpington
John Arthur Stevens, Baron Stevens of Kirkwhelpington KStJ QPM DL FRSA was Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 2000 until 2005. From 1991 to 1996, he was Chief Constable of Northumbria Police before being appointed one of HM Inspectors of Constabulary in September 1996...
was appointed to investigate collusion between the paramilitaries and the Royal Ulster Constabulary
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
(RUC). Stevens was able to use advanced fingerprint technology, then unavailable to the RUC. The Inquiry team discovered Nelson's fingerprints on some security force documents and they began the investigations that, despite the obstructions encountered, would eventually lead to Nelson's arrest.
When the Stevens Inquiry Team arrested Nelson, he immediately pressed upon them that he had been acting on behalf on the British Government. Stevens spoke to John Deverell, head of MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
in Belfast, who confirmed that Nelson worked for the British Army and not the RUC. However, as the RUC had supremacy, they should have been in full control. Sharp disagreements developed between the two security branches as the extent of Nelson's illegal activities within the Force Research Unit
Force Research Unit
Force Research Unit is alleged to be a name used by a covert military intelligence unit established by the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence in the Intelligence Corps of the British Army based at Templer Barracks, Ashford in Kent. The FRU is alleged to have been formed between 1980 and 1981...
(FRU) was uncovered.
Over two months Nelson dictated a police statement covering 650 pages. He revealed that he had been tasked by both the British Army and the Protestant paramilitaries to make the UDA a more effective killing machine. Using information that should have been confidential to the army he produced dossiers or "Intelligence Packages" including backgrounds, addresses, photos and movements on proposed targets. These were then passed on to the killers.
Blue card index system
Nelson also had his blue card index system whereby he would pick out information on individuals from the mass of information reaching him. The selection of names for the index was Nelson's alone and Stevens concluded that Nelson was actually choosing the people who were going to be shot - if an Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) killer had a vague notion of targeting someone in a particular area, Nelson would pass over a card, relevant or otherwise.In one instance the paramilitaries requested information on 14 prospective Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
councillors. Nelson passed on the names of only ten people to his FRU handlers claiming he could not remember the others. Those ten were never targeted while the other four, including solicitor Pat Finucane, were all shot dead. In John Stevens' words "the FRU had been inexcusably careless in failing to protect the four who lost their lives."
Nelson also handed out his blue cards, between twenty and fifty at a time, to members of the Ulster Volunteer Force. The FRU had no agents within the UVF and these people were consequently unprotected.
Fortunately for the Stevens Inquiry, many killers never bothered to destroy their blue cards and the team was able to obtain fingerprint evidence.
Trial
At his trial in 1992, the prosecution alleged that he failed to alert his handlers to all the assassination plans of which he was aware. Gordon Kerr ('Colonel J'), a senior officer who has since himself been investigated, testified on Nelson's behalf; claiming that he had warned them of UDA targeting of more than 200 people, including the Sinn FéinSinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
President, Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams is an Irish republican politician and Teachta Dála for the constituency of Louth. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he was an abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. He is the president of Sinn Féin, the second largest political party in Northern...
. The early warning meant that only three had been subsequently killed. Nelson further claimed that he had warned Military Intelligence of the UFF plans to kill solicitor Pat Finucane, but that Mr Finucane had not been given the warning.
Eventually Nelson pleaded guilty to 20 charges, including five of conspiracy to murder and was sentenced to 10 years. However, a number of charges against Nelson, including two murders, were quietly dropped as part of his plea agreement.
Further allegations
Following Nelson's conviction, the BBC PanoramaPanorama (TV series)
Panorama is a BBC Television current affairs documentary programme, which was first broadcast in 1953, and is the longest-running public affairs television programme in the world. Panorama has been presented by many well known BBC presenters, including Richard Dimbleby, Robin Day, David Dimbleby...
programme "Dirty War", broadcast on 8 June 1992, made new claims about Nelson's involvement in further murders and conspiracies. One allegation was that, following a tip off from Nelson, army intelligence kept secret a plot to murder Paddy McGrory, a solicitor representing the families of the Gibraltar Three. A further claim was that soldiers aided Nelson's research on behalf of the UFF by photographing IRA member Anto Murray's home. It was further alleged that Nelson's army handlers encouraged him to bomb a Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
oil refinery.
In January 1993 Gerry Adams claimed that the Government was fully aware of Nelson's involvement in the January 1988 import of weapons from South Africa including 200 AK47 rifles; 90 Browning pistols; 500 fragmentation grenades and 12 RPG 7 rocket launchers. This, together with the reliance by loyalists on leaked, though often outdated, intelligence files on potential targets, meant that by 1992, loyalists were once again killing more than the republicans, a situation not seen since 1975.
Previously Northern Ireland Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, had claimed that the Nelson affair was dead and buried. However, in May 1993, a San Francisco judge, in the extradition case of escaped maze prisoner, James Joseph Smyth, demanded disclosure in court of suppressed reports including documents on Nelson or risk having the case abandoned.
Francisco Notarantonio
Some sources claim that Nelson set up the killing of Francisco Notarantonio in order to divert the UDA/UFF from targeting Frederico Scappatici. Sam McCrory was given his first assignment and on 9 October 1987, Notarantonio, a 66 year old who had been interned in 1971 but had not been active for more than 40 years, was shot dead at his home in BallymurphyBallymurphy
Ballymurphy may refer to:*Ballymurphy, Belfast - an area in Belfast, northern Ireland, known for the Ballymurphy Massacre.*Ballymurphy, County Carlow - a village in County Carlow, Ireland....
, West Belfast.