The British state tried to protect Loyalists who murdered six people in the Loughinisland killings in 1994
A court ruling has slammed the illegal actions of the PSNI and British state (Photo: Joshua Hayes)
By Tomáš Tengely-Evans
Wednesday 18 December 2024
SOCIALIST WORKER Issue 2936
The police unlawfully spied on two journalists who were making a documentary about a Loyalist massacre in Northern Ireland, a tribunal has ruled.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) chief constable Sir George Hamilton authorised surveillance against Belfast journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney in 2018. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) quashed this decision on Tuesday and awarded damages of £4,000 each to the two journalists.
The spying operation tried to reveal the source of a leaked police document, which McCaffrey and Birney used in No Stone Unturned. The documentary revealed police had protected Loyalist gunmen who murdered six people in the Loughinisland killings in 1994.
Loyalists massacred people as they watched a World Cup Match at the Heights Bar, which was packed with mainly Catholic football fans. Police informants were involved in the planning and execution of the massacre.
Cops raided McCaffrey’s and Birne’s homes and offices and arrested the two men.
The PSNI was later forced to apologise and agreed to pay £875,000 in damages to the journalists and the film company that produced the documentary. That only came after a court had ruled that the police’s warrants were “inappropriate”.
Subsequently, McCaffrey and Birney asked the IPT in 2019 to rule where police had carried out any unlawful surveillance.
The tribunal heard earlier this year that a detective requested a directed surveillance authorisation (DSA) from Hamilton. The detective wanted to see if McCaffrey and Birney would reach out to their source after being released from custody.
Hamilton green-lighted surveillance of a civilian worker whom they suspected of leaking the document from the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman.
Meanwhile, the tribunal looked at two separate police operations in 2012 and 2013. The PSNI unlawfully accessed McCaffrey’s phone data in 2012 and that the Metropolitan Police did so in 2013.
The tribunal quashed the authorisation for those two operations, but didn’t award any compensation in those cases.
On Tuesday, Birney said, “This landmark ruling underscores the crucial importance of protecting press freedom and confidential journalistic sources.
“We hope that the judgment today will protect and embolden other journalists pursuing stories that are in the public interest.
“The judgment serves as a warning that unlawful state surveillance targeting the media cannot and should not be justified by broad and vague police claims.
“The judgment raises serious concerns about police abuse of power and the law, and our case has exposed a lack of effective legal safeguards governing secret police operations.”
Mr McCaffrey told reporters, “For this court to have found that a Chief Constable has acted unlawfully, we think is a major embarrassment. It’s something that means there needs to be a public inquiry.”
The Special Branch intelligence unit of the Royal Ulster Constabulary—the forerunner of the PSNI—had informers inside Loyalist death squads. The police were determined to protect them and hampered investigations into the Loughinisland massacre.
In 2016, Northern Ireland’s former police ombudsman Michael Maguire said he had “no hesitation” in concluding that “collusion is a significant feature in the Loughinisland murders”.
The police’s treatment of McCaffrey and Birney shows the British state is still determined to hide its filthy role in Loyalist paramilitary murders.
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