A LICENCE TO MURDER PART 2

	A LICENCE TO MURDER PART TWO 10:15pm 23 June 2002
Jenny Maginn	*got out of bed and daddy.. he just come up the top of the stairs and like he fell on the landing*
Michael Finucane	..it a place I don care to visit very often, but I know it there

Sean Slane	*lay down beside him, just asking him to wake up, wake up daddy, wake up*
	These are the children who saw their fathers murdered.
	This is the secret British agent who chose them as targets.
	And this is the Military Intelligence Colonel who recruited the agent.
	The agent name was Brian Nelson. But in the secret army records, he was known as 6137.
	ee had unique access to these records which reveal his mission was to infiltrate the Loyalist murder gangs; to stop them shooting innocent Catholics. and to ensure the "proper targeting of Provisional IRA members….prior to any shooting…"
	The agent was tasked to work hand in glove with Loyalist killers like this man - Ken Barrett passing them names and addresses of IRA targets. We've had twelve meetings with Barrett over the past year, all of them secretly recorded.
Ken Barrett	*"They're not passing us documentation to sit and read it; they're passing us documentation because they know what's going to happen afterwards "*

	So murky was this relationship between Military Intelligence and Loyalist murder gangs that it's still the subject of the longest and most sensitive police enquiry in recent times.

	It's headed by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens. This week on Panorama, his detectives speak for the first time.
Nicholas Benwell Detective Sergeant Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1994	Q: Let me have a clear answer on this, did the Stevens inquiry come to the conclusion that military intelligence was colluding with their agent which was to ensure that the UFF shot the right people? A: Yes, that was the conclusion we came to.."
	When John Stevens began to investigate back in 1989 the Army told him they did not run agents.
Sarah Bynum Detective Constable Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1991	Q: It wasn't true was it? A: No. Q: In fact it was a complete lie? A: Yes."
	Eventually the Stevens enquiry uncovered the agent Nelson. On the eve of his arrest, Stevens detectives returned to their offices.
Sarah Bynum Detective Constable Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1991	Q: Do you think this fire was caused by arson? A: Yes, I do.
	Dark forces may have attempted to thwart the police enquiry. But eventually agent 6137 was arrested.
	Title: " A Licence To Murder Part 2"
	"*I would like to state that all information "*
	Once in custody Nelson seemed relieved it was all over. He even volunteered he was an army agent.
	*"At no point did I ever withhold or conceal any information that I was party to.."*
	The army had prepared Nelson for precisely this situation, They'd instructed him to say nothing and had even given him anti interrogations lessons.
Lynn Evans Detective Sergeant Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1993	A: He was very keen to tell us everything SYNC - Q: What was the total length of the statement you took? A: Well, I think your talking about one thousand pages of statement from Brian Nelson. Q: Did he tell you the whole story do you think? A: I think Brian Nelson could tell us what Brian Nelson wanted to tell us but he could stop short where he wanted to stop short".
	The Stevens enquiry needed to know if Nelson was telling the truth. So they interviewed all the army handlers who'd run him as an agent but in the most bizarre of circumstances.
	Silent but ever present in the shadows were representatives of
	Military Intelligence, Special Branch and MI 5. All the interviews were conducted simultaneously. And whenever the police wanted an answer checked in the secret records, the checks were made by the soldiers because only the soldiers were allowed to check the files.
Nicholas Benwell Detective Sergeant Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1994	*"So they would go away to consult these secret files, then they'd come back and give the answers .."*
Nicholas Benwell Detective Sergeant Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1994	" one had the deafening impression that you weren't getting everything they had certainly left out a huge amount which they could have told us on that first occasion. Q: So they were being selective? A: Very."
	So a request from the Stevens enquiry to see the secret records - became a demand - one which had to be repeated many times over the coming months.
Nicholas Benwell Detective Sergeant Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1994	A: Is it's fair to say the files were handed over under duress? A: Yes Q: Am I right in saying that army officers - in fact quite senior army officers had to be spoken to? A: Yes.
	So senior, in fact, that the army was warned that the General Officer Commanding forces in Northern Ireland Lt Gen Sir John Waters could be arrested unless they co-operated. The message got home .
	. And the details of Agent's 6137's targeting activities were made available to the Stevens enquiry. The reason for the army's resistance became clear. The records revealed the full extent of Nelson's involvement in the murder gangs of the Loyalist UDA.
Nicholas Benwell Detective Sergeant Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1994	*Q: "When you did get access to the files, what did you discover about Nelson's activities, just paint a picture for me . That he had been at the heart of all the activity of the UDA / UFF*
	" ..Nelson initiates most of the targeting ."
Nicholas Benwell Detective Sergeant Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1994	*" he had been directing the targeting operations which were being carried out by the UDA / UFF thugs .."*
	PIRA etc "
	One of the gunmen to whom Nelson had been supplying targeting information was this man Ken Barrett whom we secretly filmed over a series of meetings.
Ken Barrett	"If we asked him details on a Republican, he knew it wasn't to send him fucking postcards like I mean, they're not passing us documentation to sit in the house and read it. They're passing us documentation because they know what's going to result afterwards. Know what I mean?"
Questions to Nicholas Benwell Detective Sergeant Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1994	*Q: "How many crimes was Nelson involved in?*
	*Q: Give me some sense of the scale of it .*
	*Q: conspiracies, murders, whatever*
Nicholas Benwell Detective Sergeant Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1994	*A: Over 50.*
	The Colonel who recruited Nelson to the shadowy Force Research Unit and who commanded his handlers was Gordon Kerr. When questioned by Stevens, he prepared an extensive statement defending Nelson's relationship with murder gangs. He admitted he had used Nelson to redirect their guns at IRA targets.
Colonel Kerr Statement	"By getting him into that position, FRU reasoned that we could persuade the UDA to centralise their targeting through Nelson and to concentrate their targeting on known PIRA activists.."
	However, the Colonel claimed his plan - far from taking lives was designed to save them. "IRA activists" he argued were "far harder targets" than innocent Catholics This gave his unit in co-operation with the Royal Ulster Constabulary, more time to prepare counter measures to prevent the killings.
Colonel Kerr Statement	"The Force Research Unit made the greatest efforts to inform the RUC of all relevant intelligence regarding planned UDA targeting and attacks Nelson was a prolific provider of life saving intelligence. The statistics . of 730 reports about the targeting of 217 individuals are witness to that.."
Sarah Bynum Detective Constable Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1991	Q: " The colonel in charge of the Force Research Unit, suggested that Nelson had saved.. his intelligence had been used to save scores and scores of lives. Was that your finding? A: I think not No I can't say that it was clear to us that the whole goal of the army having him in place was to save life."
	The Colonel, though, was right about one thing - 730 warning reports were sent to the RUC Special Branch here at Castlereagh, Belfast.
John Ware	"Passing warning reports to the police was the crucial function of the Colonel's unit. Because the unit existed supposedly to save lives. But it's what his unit chose to leave in those warning reports that mattered. Because what they chose to leave out could be a matter of life or death."
	One of the reports the army sent to the Special Branch concerned the targeting of a man called "Gerard Slane".
	"Targeting - Gerard Slane ."
	The secret army records show the Loyalists thought he was a gunman for a republican splinter group.
	The army could have told the police that Slane's life was in grave danger.
	"It is obvious that.. 6137 wants a prestigious target to be hit ."
	But that would have meant telling the police that their own agent was doing the targeting.
	We know this because their records show it.
	Nelson is recorded as having passed both Slane's address and photograph to a Loyalist godfather.
	*"..I'll soon deal with him. I'll have someone down there soon to have a look at the place. We can't have these bastards getting away with this."*
Sean Slane Aged 8 when his father was killed	*"I was just woken up the sound of glass breaking..."*
Sean Slane	*" .My father ran downstairs and then came running back up.."*
Sean Slane	*"He tried to knock them down keep them down the stairs - with the ladder and then I just heard gunfire, all the cracks and the shots, my father just dropped.*
	Gerard Slane, father of three young children, died almost instantly.
Sean Slane	- And I just lay down beside him SYNC - just crying him, asking him to wake up. ëDaddy, wake up, wake up.' There was just no movement, he was just lying there, still. Just lying, and staring - what's going on."
Nicholas Benwell Detective Sergeant Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1994	- "One of my abiding memories .. was the statement of the next-door neighbour - on the night that Gerard Slane was murdered.. was the little boy, the son SYNC - in his pyjamas, and he was in such distress and grief..that he was jumping up and down in the front garden, and he was lacerating his feet on the broken glass from the front door where the killers had smashed their way in. That's remained with me, that image."
Sean Slane	"I really did think that it was dream, that it wasn't real, that it was a nightmare, that it wasn't real just waiting on my father coming ëSean, are you OK, wake up.' But it never came. Thirteen years later I'm still sitting here, hoping for him to wake me up."
	At Slane's inquest, a detective said he was not a gunman. Colonel Kerr told the Stevens enquiry, there was nothing his unit could have done to prevent this murder.
Colonel Kerr Statement	".. .Slane was killed but no-one in Force Research Unit or Special Branch knew that an imminent attack was being planned, or that he had been singled out as a target."
Nicholas Benwell Detective Sergeant Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1994	A: That's not correct. They knew that Nelson had been targeting Slane. They also knew that he'd been to his intelligence dump and he'd got a photograph of Slane which he'd handed to one of the most prolific killers in the organisation. That at least should have set the alarm bells ringing and they should have been passed to the RUC.
	But nothing was passed to the RUC. All the Colonel's unit had prepared was a vaguely worded summary for the police. It said the Loyalists wanted "three attacks to be carried out before the end of October." This report made no mention of Slane. Nor, by the time he was shot, had it even been sent to the police.
	According to the Stevens enquiry, the Slane case was typical. His officers found that the information the army sent to the Special Branch often lacked even the most basic details.
Nicholas Benwell Detective Sergeant Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1994	Q: Do you infer from that then that the army wanted these attacks to take place or at least were content from them to take place? A: Certainly. Q: By allowing the events to take their course? A: By not taking any action to prevent the events taking their course as you say - it's collusion by omission."
Colonel Kerr Statement	"It was a shock to learn that the Stevens team believed the Force Research Unit to have been deliberately withholding evidence and that we were suspected of conspiracy to murder. Needless to say, I wish to state categorically that any such suspicions are completely groundless."
	A trial was held but neither the Colonel nor any member of his unit were in the dock.
	*"I give of course a considerable weight "*
	Had this happened the trial would have been explosive
	*"..What was possibly life saving..""*
	The secret records of how agent 6137 was run would have been exposed.
	In the end, just one man took the rap for everyone and everything. Brian Nelson.
Carole Creighton Brian Nelson's sister Panorama 1992	"The Army ..tried their best to get him out of that situation. They lobbied everybody. I lobbied everybody. We kept it within the establishment because we thought the establishment will see that they have to let this person go. They can't charge him with these things."
Carole Creighton Brian Nelson's sister	*"The Army lobbied to the very top but they couldn't get him out.*
	Nevertheless, a deal was done. Nelson faced two counts of murder. When the trial opened, these were suddenly dropped. In exchange Nelson pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of conspiracy to murder. On behalf of the State, the Attorney General's representative said the deal was in "the interests of justice". It looked more like the interests of the State.
Laurence Sherwood Detective Chief Superintendent Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1993	Q: How much of the iceberg that the Nelson case has become did the public glimpse from that short court hearing in Belfast 10 years ago? A: I guess just the pointy bit at the top. And that is not surprising when Nelson, having pleaded guilty, to a series of offences, then the court will have got, and did get a very truncated version of events. There wasn't the examination of evidence that you would have got in a full criminal trial."
John Ware	"The Colonel, however, did go into the witness box to speak up for Brian Nelson. Now he made public his claim that Nelson had saved many lives - a claim which Stevens had already told him was not based on fact."
Colonel Kerr	A: "There were several occasions when targets for assassination were brought to our notice by Brian Nelson.. You wish me to quote statistics? In a period from 1985 to 1990, or up until his arrest, we produced on Brian Nelson's information, something like 730 reports concerning threats to 217 separate individuals? Q: Threats to life? A: Threats to life of the individual in all cases. These were passed on."
Nicholas Benwell Detective Sergeant Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1994	A: I was incredulous. It just wasn't right, it wasn't correct. Afterwards I went through all the documents I could only find maybe two cases where the information given by Nelson may have been helpful to the Security Forces in preventing attacks."
Lord Justice Kelly	*"The sentence I am about to pass will show that much of the mitigating material given forcefully before me "*
	Forcefully but not true. Yet the Colonel's evidence certainly had the desired effect.
Lord Justice Kelly	*" I give, of course, considerable weight to the fact that he passed on what was possibly life saving information in respect of 217 threatened individuals.."*
	By the following day, the Colonel had turned Brian Nelson into a hero. Thanks to the Colonel, he got just ten years a light sentence considering what he'd done.by any standard.
	What the headline writers didn't realise was that other claims made by the Colonel were just as hollow as the ones he'd made in court:
Colonel Kerr Statement	"I firmly believe that the purpose of running agents is not only to prevent terrorist killings, but also to bring about the arrest of terrorists."
Nicholas Benwell Detective Sergeant Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1994	A. I cannot think of one occasion where the information provided by Nelson led to any of the activities you describe. Q: What, no terrorists arrested? A: No. Q: No guns recovered? A: No.
Nicholas Benwell Detective Sergeant Stevens Enquiry 1989 - 1994	Q: What did the State get out of Mr Nelson then? A: You may well ask."
	So we thought we would ask. And who better to ask - than the Colonel himself.
	These days Gordon Kerr lives about as far away from Belfast as it's possible to get. He's in China - and he's been promoted. Today it's Brigadier Kerr - and he has one of the most prestigious postings in the diplomatic service. He's our Military AttachÈ in Beijing.
John Ware	"This morning, I'm on way to see Brigadier Kerr. Since commanding the Force Research Unit all those years ago, his career has certainly blossomed. Soon after leaving Northern Ireland, he was awarded the military version of the Order of the British Empire."
John Ware	" Well, We're just entering the diplomatic compound where Brigadier Kerr lives. I've already written to him twice - asking him if I can talk to him. He's sent back a message through the Ministry of Defence to say he can't comment while the Stevens enquiry is going on. But of course the enquiry has been investigating this matter- off and an on - for the last thirteen years."
	I wanted to catch the Brigadier before he left for the embassy. And I brought a letter with me setting out the details of our allegations.
John Ware meets Gordon Kerr	Q: Ah, Brigadier Kerr? A: Yes. Morning. Q: John Ware is my name from the BBC Panorama programme. A: Hello John. Q: Good morning A: Good morning to you.. Q: How are you? A: I'm fine thank you. Q: I've come a long way but I've come for a good reason. and I've come for a good reason because I want to put to the seriousness of the allegations to you "
	Door closes and locked
	As Brigadier Kerr wouldn't talk to me, I delivered my letter..
	To the British Embassy in Beijing.. The most serious allegation I wanted the Brigadier to respond to was that he and his unit had been complicit in murder. I never got a reply. But he will have some explaining to do when he's questioned by the Stevens enquiry later this year.
	Back in Belfast Colonel Kerr and his unit were not alone in colluding with Loyalist murder gangs. The police colluded with them too.
Michael Finucane Aged 17 when his father was killed	*"There was a bang from the hallway.."*

Michael Finucane	*"The next thing I remember is being on the floor against the wall in the corner holding my younger brother and sister and shots going off very loud and it seemed like forever ."*
	Pat Finucane was a solicitor. Many of his clients were IRA men. The Loyalists claimed he was too. Both the IRA and his family categorically denied this.
Michael Finucane	*- "It's an insult, an egregious insult. It was easy for them to believe ."*
Michael Finucane	" .that he was a member of the IRA. Their limited mentalities did not stretch to differentiating between the role of the lawyer and the offence suspected of the client. The line between the two was not apparent to them."
	The line became irrelevant to this man Ken Barrett one of the killers the agent Brian Nelson worked closely with. Ken Barrett shot Pat Finucane. He gave us details about the weapons used.
Ken Barrett	*"No one knows this, right? because everybody thinks he was hit with a Magnum "*
Ken Barrett	*" .it was a 38 Special with Magnum rounds with Magnum rounds, you remember that?"*
	Barrett says the plan to shoot Pat Finucane was suggested to him by this man in red – Jim Spence. Spence is the classic godfather: he organised killings behind the scenes without getting his own hands dirty – as Barrett explained to us.
Ken Barrett	A ":…if you understand what I mean, he wasn't actually involved in the business end. Do you understand what I mean? Q: Okay, the commissioning. A: He would have arranged if you know what I mean, or set it up, but he wasn't actually involved in the actual... Q: The execution? A: The end product if you get what I mean."
	What Barrett says about Spence organising the "end product" in the Finucane case is reinforced by the secret army records:
	They report that it was "Spence who suggested" the Loyalists attack Finucane.
	But, when Jim Spence first came up with the idea, Ken Barrett thought he was crazy.
Ken Barrett	"I says: ëlook, wait till I tell you Jim, I says you can't start whacking fucking solicitors here.' I says: ëYou'll bring the peelers down on us like a bag of fucking shite, we'll have no guns like . I says they'll raid everywhere. I says they'll take the fucking place apart if you start hitting these people .."
Ken Barrett	*"I says, because they'll know who it came from, they'll know who's involved right away "*
	Barrett was right. They did.
BBC NI News	SOF "Gunmen walked into Pat Finucane's home
	The Special Branch knew the names of Barrett and the other gunman within days. Neither was ever arrested.
Ken Barrett	*"..the hit went down. I wasn't arrested for the hit."*
	The Special Branch is the hidden, intelligence gathering arm of the police in Belfast. Their job is to give leads from informants to the ordinary detectives trying to solve murders like Pat Finucane's. But they operate in the shadows an all powerful, unaccountable force within a force.
	Although Special Branch knew Ken Barrett had killed Pat Finucane, they withheld this from the detectives investigating his murder.
Alan Simpson Senior Investigating Officer Finucane murder case	- "I was heading the Patrick Finucane investigation I didn't get a great deal of help now from special branch SYNC and I had 20 detectives, very, very good detectives, running about North Belfast trying to pick up leads on this case. Q: Did they give you any steers on any of the key suspects? A: No, no, no leads, no directions at all really from them, which was quite unusual."
	But two years later one of Det Supt Simpson's officers did learn all about Barrett. On 3 October 1991, at Barrett's request, a Det Sgt, Johnston Brown, met him in a car. Barrett was offering his services as an informer.
Johnston Brown Detective Sergeant RUC 1972 - 2000	*"So I asked him: ëWho murdered Mr Finucane?' and he replied straight back ëHypothetically, me' ... So I mean if he had of slapped me in the face he couldn't have got my attention quicker..."*
	According to Det. Sgt Brown, Barrett then described in detail how he'd shot the solicitor.
Johnston Brown Detective Sergeant RUC 1972 - 2000	*"I remember turning around in the car and looking at him and he was sitting with his hands and his eyes blazing just pump, pump, pump*
Johnston Brown Detective Sergeant RUC 1972 - 2000	" He put his hands down into the foot well of the car and he was holding an imaginary gun, you could see where he was discharging the gun into Mr Finucane's head, he was reliving it, it was actually happening again to him, and by his very actions he was expressing how he enjoyed it, he was boasting about it, gloating over it.
Johnston Brown Detective Sergeant RUC 1972 - 2000	" .and he said that as he was pumping the bullets into this man's face they were coming back up out of the stone floor and.. he was still dodging them in the car because he was reliving this trauma, there was no doubt about it, and when he sat back in the chair he said ëNothing.. nothing I say is evidence here', he's right."
	Barrett was right because the confession was not taken under police caution. Nevertheless, it was a starting point in getting him locked up for murder. Which is how Det Sgt Brown saw it. But with him in the car was a Special Branch officer.
Johnston Brown Detective Sergeant RUC 1972 - 2000	A: "..he made it clear, ëThere's nothing new here, we know he done it. We know, we know he done it, move away from it.' Q: ëMove away from it?' A: ëMove away from it', yes, he'd put that forward.. Q: That's a very strange phrase to use isn't it? ëMove away from it'? A: Well it is.. Q: One police officer telling another police officer to ëMove away' from solving one of the most heinous terrorist atrocities of the troubles? A: Yes."
	Special Branch also told Brown's CID bosses to "move away" from pursuing Finucane's killer. And what Special Branch wanted, Special Branch got.
Alan Simpson Detective Superintendent RUC 1970 - 1993	Q: What's your view about the fact that again the Special Branch didn't avail themselves of that opportunity that was staring them in the face? A: I just can't comprehend their thinking, I am appalled at what happened . I said at the inquest into Mr Finucane that the killers had killed before. So here was an opportunity to take probably a serial killer off the streets."
	Det. Sgt Brown kept meeting Barrett - to try to get more evidence out of him. But the Branch said the meetings had to cease. Extraordinarily it was from Barrett that he learned about their next step.
Johnston Brown Detective Sergeant RUC 1972 - 2000	A: " he said that he'd been in the car with a number of Special Branch officers, who sat with him and told him that I was treading on too many toes, that I was to be removed from the Belfast region, that they were going to put a threat on me. Q: Sorry, Ken Barrett told you that Special Branch were going to put a threat on you? A: Yes. A murderer tells me that my colleagues are going to rid themselves of me out of Belfast because I'm treading on too many toes.."
	Three days later what Barrett had warned would happen....did happen.
Johnston Brown Detective Sergeant RUC 1972 - 2000	A: "A Detective Chief Superintendent . said that a serious Loyalist threat had been received by Special Branch that my life was in danger Q:.. the threat was a threat to your family? A: A threat to my life and the lives of my family, yes indeed. Q: Reportedly from a Loyalist source? A: Yes indeed. Q: Received by Special Branch? A: Yes indeed Q: Coming a few days after Barrett himself had predicted that's exactly what was going to happen? A: Yes. Q: That wasn't a coincidence? A: They would say it was. But, no."
	Det. Sgt Brown took this threat seriously - and finally backed off.
BBC Radio	*"John Stevens, who's the deputy commissioner John Stevens who is back in Belfast, says "*
	There the matter rested for another seven years until the RUC were forced to have outsiders investigate once again.
John Stevens Head of Stevens Enquiry	*"For clarity I will refer to this investigation that we start today as Stevens 3.."*
	John Stevens had already twice investigated security force links in the Finucane murder: first in 1989, then in 1993. Now, for the third time in ten years, he was back in Belfast.
John Stevens Head of Stevens Enquiry	*"I've assembled twenty detectives an independent team of investigators with current and former officers from the Metropolitan police service and the Northumbria police "*
[JS became ëSir John' in New Years Honours, Jan 2000]	An early visitor to the new Stevens enquiry was Det. Sgt Johnston Brown. Which was when the threats to him from his colleagues in Special Branch began all over again.
Johnston Brown Detective Sergeant RUC 1972 - 2000	A:"I was confronted by a Special Branch colleague, …he says ‘if we put a barrier up, or an obstacle up, be like the rest of them – don’t go over it, or around it, go away. You walked into the offices of English detectives and you spoke about us, and you think there’s no come back, you think there’s no retribution? You listen to me’, and he lost it….He threatened me. He said we’ll send our Ninja men in, we give you the keys of your house, you remember that. There's not a lock on this earth we can't get past. And the Ninja men are briefed, Jonty, to tell the chief constable if they find anything. You imagine if they come out of your loft with a wee bag of two or three dirty LVF guns. Q: Loyalist guns? A: Yes. Loyalist Volunteer Force. I knew I could see his eyes bulging his neck bulging and by his very demeanour he meant this. It was such a confrontation I shall never forget and he said they come down out of that loft with these guns. Are they yours Jonty? Are they your sons? Think about that.‘"
	Det Sgt Brown gave a statement to the Stevens Enquiry that there was a tape of Barrett's confession to the murder of Pat Finucane. This had been secretly recorded by the Branch at Brown's first meeting with Barrett on 3 October 1991.
	Stevens asked the Branch for the tape - and a tape labelled the 3^rd was handed over.
	But when Stevens played it back, they thought Brown had been wasting their time.
Johnston Brown Detective Sergeant RUC 1972 - 2000	A: " once I'd made the statement and signed it, they told me there was no confession, they had.. Q: On the 3^rd? A: On the tape, yes. They asked me: ëWas an audio tape not a record that you couldn't question? Independent audio record of what was said?' And I said: ëWell, my notes are here and that's all I can do.'"
	Although the Special Branch had labelled the tape the 3^rd, it was in fact a tape of a second meeting Brown had with Barrett on 10th. The same Branch officer had been present. And the questions had been identical - *almost.*
Ken Barrett	A: Mr Barrett was repeatedly saying 'What's he asked me that for? What's he asked me we went over this last week. It's going over the same ground, it's going over the same ground' and I had no...I was sitting as perplexed as he was. Q: "So your Special Branch colleague was asking exactly the same questions that had been asked the previous week. A: Yes. Q: With the one exception? A: The murder of Mr Finucane. Out."
	What's now clear is that the tape of the 10^th had been re-labelled the 3^rd, and that the meeting of the 10th had been a set up by the Branch - to recreate the official record of the 3^rd - but with Barrett's murder confession erased.
Johnston Brown Detective Sergeant RUC 1972 - 2000	Q: Why would they want to do that? A: I can't answer for Special Branch, I have asked them time and time and time again and I haven't got any answers from them, and I don't expect to get any answers from them. Are you asking me am I surprised that this happened? No I'm not."
John Ware	"The official Special Branch record of Barrett's confession to the murder of Pat Finucane may have disappeared. But at least now there is a record: our record which runs to many hours. Our recordings may also explain why the Special Branch did everything they could to stop Barrett being brought to justice."
	Barrett says he was encouraged to shoot Pat Finucane by a police officer. This officer, he says, tried to convince him that the solicitor was in the IRA.
Ken Barrett	Q: "When you met him first time what did he actually say to you about Finucane? A. Just that ëPat was one of their men, you know, he was an IRA man like, and he was dealing with finances and stuff for them, and he was a bad boy and if he was out like, they would have a lot of trouble replacing him', stuff like this you know '"
	Barrett also told us that the police officer assisted his murder gang. An hour before the murder, soldiers and policemen had been searching lock-up garages for weapons near the solicitor's home.
	Barrett says a message was relayed from the officer via a call box close to where Barrett and his fellow gunman were waiting.
Ken Barrett	Q:" The road block had been taken down A: Uh uh.. Q: And that's what this guy was telling you, the road block had gone? A: ëAll clear'. Q: OK. A: That meant: ëThere's no, say, presence in the area' if you know what I mean .' - Now, you couldn't phone me and say ëeverything's clear' unless you know where the police are at that particular time ..it's a brave drive "
	Barrett also says the Loyalist godfather Jim Spence - who wanted the solicitor shot had introduced him to this police officer.
Ken Barrett	"He says 'You're more . how do you put it' - he says: ëYou're more the psychopath than what Spence is'. He says: ëYou're more a one for business here aren't you?' I says: ëWhat do you mean business?' He says: ëNo, you want Provies buried.' I says: ëAye, of course I do.' He says: ëI understand where I stand.' I says: ëYes, every time.' I says: ëYou do the business for us. If in the near future we can help you at any stage, that'll be done..' He says: ëYes, as long as we're on the same wavelength.'"
	Over the years Spence and his police friend have stayed tuned.
	In the summer of 1999, the police set out at dawn to bring Spence and Barrett in for questioning by the Stevens enquiry.
	It was 6am. But Spence was already dressed and sipping a cup of tea. He'd been tipped off. Barrett says he was tipped off too.
Ken Barrett	"Spence says to me: ëGive your man a ring' ….I rang him and he rang me the next day they thought they'd surprised everybody, .. And when they were arresting me I wanted to get into the car?, he says: ëDid you know you were being arrested this morning?' I said: ëWhat makes you think that?'. He says: ëYou don't look very surprised to see us?'. I said: ëNo'".
	Jim Spence is one of Belfast’s "Untouchables". The police know he’s organised murders. But he’s never spent a day in jail for this. The protective arm of Spence…
	…and his police and murder gang associates extends to everyone involved in Pat Finucane’s murder – provided they play the game.
	Billy Stobie didn’t. He was a weak link in the chain. He told us that Spence asked him to produce the guns for Pat Finucane’s murder.
John Ware telephone conversation with Billy Stobie September 2001	A: I was told to get two 9mmBrownings? Q: By whom? A: By Spence. Q: When? A: I seen Spence on the Tuesday. Right? Q: Right. A: Then I took a 9 mm Browning and a Heckler and Koek....and the conversation was that ëI need two 9mm Browning and the Heckler and Koech only carries 9 shots and the 9mm Browning carries 13.'"
	Billy Stobie was charged with Patrick Finucane's murder by the Stevens Enquiry. When we talked to him at his home on the Forthriver estate, he was awaiting trial. Not much moves on this bleak Loyalist stronghold without Jim Spence knowing about it.
Ken Barrett	"Spence is fucking cracking up, he's going though the roof .. He phoned me and he says, ëYou know where them other two fuckers are?'. I says, ëWho?' He says, ëYour man from Panorama.' I says, ëNo'. He says, ëThey're in Stobie's house'.. He says, ëFuck this', he says, ë Something will have to be done' Stobie will be lucky if he sees his fucking trial .'."
	Stobie did live to see his trial but only just.
BBC NEWS	*"... The Red Hand Defenders have said they carried out the murder of William Stobie. ."*
	Billy Stobie talked too much - not just to me, but to several others too.
BBC NEWS	*" .quartermaster was shot dead in the Forthriver area of North Belfast early this morning.."*
	One weak link down. And one to go.
	Spence suspected Ken Barrett was talking to us. Graffiti appeared mocking him as a one time police informer. Barrett knew his days were numbered.
	Barrett went on the run he flew to Birmingham where we met him and again secretly filmed him.
	Clutching his belongings in just a plastic bag, Barrett explained why he thought he and Stobie had become scapegoats for Spence and his police friends.
Ken Barrett	*"The killing of Pat Finucane was organised by the Police...the dogs in the street know that; everybody knows it.. They set the murder up. They wanted Finucane dead ."*
	Barrett again spoke of the police officer he says Spence introduced him to: How the police had urged Loyalists to shoot the solicitor and how this officer had appealed to him in person to do it.
Ken Barrett	*" They know who killed Pat Finucane They orchestrated it from the start ".*
	Barrett says he never knew the real name of this police officer.
	But we do. And we have established that he was a member of Special Branch based in Belfast here at Castlereagh.
	We also know a bit about his past. Reliable police sources have provided us with evidence that this officer urged a Loyalist gunman to shoot a suspected IRA man in 1990. Which is what Barrett said the officer urged him to do a year earlier to Pat Finucane.
	But now the man who had killed him was in fear of his own life and in fear of the very people who set up the murder in the first place. Barrett he had nowhere left to run.
Ken Barrett	" Q: There's no heroes in this fucking game You're buried, the Monday, you're talked about to the Wednesday, the drinking stops on the Friday .What would you do John, honestly?
	What Barrett wasn't going to do was hand himself over to the Stevens enquiry.
Ken Barrett	Q: You know what they'll do to me! A: What, what? Q: They'll charge me. They'll charge me and they'll stand by them ones, believe me John."
	So Barrett took his chances and flew back to Northern Ireland - lying low at this hotel in Ballymena. One day he found it surrounded by armed police.
Ken Barrett	" .this peeler Detective Chief Inspector somebody phoned the hotel room, says ëI need to speak to you.' I says: ëWhat's it regarding?' He says ëYour personal safety' .. He says ëHow long do you intend staying in Ballymena?' I says ëI don't know.' He says ëWell I don't advise you to stay here too long .'"
John Ware	"Ken Barrett thought the threat had come from his own side – Jim Spence and the murder gangs he once worked with. And so it was. What Barrett didn’t know was that they discovered the location of the hotel where he was hiding out – from a police officer. I understand that Barrett had telephoned this officer to seek his advice on what to do next. The officer is alleged to have then tipped off Barrett’s former friends who wanted him dead."
	Barrett was being burned by both sides: ..his own, and a renegade officer from a force that had protected from prosecution him for so long. There was only one place left to run England, and the Stevens enquiry who are investigating the darker forces of the State.
Sir John Stevens Commissioner, Metropolitan Police	Q: Can I ask you about the Special Branch. Are they a significant part of your enquiry? Are they indeed at the heart of your enquiry? A: The Special Branch, the army FRU organisation, all parts of the security apparatus, are at the very heart of our investigation."
	The heart of that security apparatus is MI 5 - supposedly the eyes and ears of Whitehall. It's operated extensively in Northern Ireland. Twelve years ago, when John Stevens set foot there, MI 5 signed statements to say they knew virtually nothing about collusion. That was, quite simply, untrue.
	We understand that almost everything we have disclosed in our two programmes about army and police complicity with Loyalist murder gangs was known to MI 5 at the time. Why? Because MI 5 had direct access to all the army's damning secret files on a daily basis.
John Ware	"What's more, we understand that MI 5 had crucial piece of intelligence suggesting the police did collude in the murder of Pat Finucane. I'm told this intelligence is consistent with Ken Barrett's account to us of police assistance in the murder. Yet only recently did MI 5 hand over this vital information to the Stevens enquiry. In other words: it's taken twelve years and three major police enquiries to get this information out of MI 5."
Sir John Stevens Commissioner, Metropolitan Police	Q: I understand that MI 5 was aware of Nelson's illegal activities, and that they also knew about the role of the police in the Pat Finucane murder. What's your response to that? A: I've got no comment to that. We're still pursuing the enquiry. We've still got people to interview. We've still got people to re-interview on the enquiry. And we'll continue to do that until I'm satisfied we've got to the bottom of what took place."
Sir John Stevens Commissioner, Metropolitan Police	Q: So have you got questions for the Security Service? A: Mr Ware, we've got questions for everybody in relation to that."
Michael Finucane		"I don't think my family should have been made to wait 13 years. I don't think all of the other families, the exact numbers of who is yet to be determined, should be made to wait for this length of time for proper answers."
		But many of the answers are still buried in the darkest recesses of the state .. Like the names of those who have used and are still protecting the men who pulled trigger.
Michael Finucane		"I don’t think about them terribly much, I think about the people behind them, and they have no face and they have no persona and they exist only perhaps in the shape of a bureaucratic suit, but they’re there and I’m determined to make them accountable."