12 * The Guardian | Tuesday 16 October 2012 The Guardian | Tuesday 16 October 2012 * 13 Special report Northern Ireland Gun running, police errors and the trail to the Loughinisland murders

ments were made to pack the weapons much did they know in advance? Why In 1994 six Catholics were gunned down into a shipping container labelled as didn’t they move more quickly? Maybe in a village bar – but no one was charged. a consignment of ceramic floor tiles. they were perfectly happy to have that Bills of lading and a certificate of origin material … sort of ‘arrive’, and put into Ian Cobain follows the supply of arms were organised, and the weapons were the hands of the loyalists.” shipped to Belfast docks via Liverpool. Noel Little also suspects the British used in the massacre, and investigates “There were at least a couple of hun- turned a blind eye to the 1987 arms ship- dred Czech-made AKs – the VZ-58,” the ment. “It is a theory I can’t discount,” the allegations of collusion by the state Armscor source recalls. “And 90-plus he says. “Brian Nelson was inserted Browning-type handguns: Hungarian- into the UDA as an agent, he wasn’t a made P9Ms. About 30,000 rounds recruited member. Ho w could he know Shortly after 10pm on 18 June 1994, that, all released without charge. The of 7.62 x 39mm ammunition, not the about it and not tell his handler?” Ireland were 1-0 up against Italy in the police repeatedly assured the families 51mm Nato rounds. Plus a dozen or so Little believes that his attempt to opening match of the 1994 World Cup. that no stone would be left unturned. RPGs, and a few hundred fragmentation hand over stolen missile technology to The second half had just kicked off, and Emma Rogan was eight years old grenades.” Armscor in Paris – straying into “secrets inside the Heights Bar at Loughinisland, when her father, Adrian, was killed at Sources within both the police and and commerce”, as he puts it – would 21 miles south of Belfast, all eyes were the Heights. “I was told that these bad the UVF have confirmed that one of the have been a step too far for the British on the television. The bar is tiny: there men came into the bar, and that my VZ-58s was used at Loughinisland. authorities, obliging them to tip off the were 15 men inside, and it was packed. daddy was dead. I didn’t really know According to the Armscor source, the French. Aidan O’Toole, the owner’s 23-year- what they meant.” UR member who dealt with Bernhardt After eight months on remand, the old son, was serving. “I heard the As she grew up, she had no reason to was Noel Little, a civil servant and four men were brought to court charged door open and then I just heard crack, doubt the police when they said they former British soldier. Now in his mid- with arms trafficking, handling stolen crack, crack and felt a stabbing pain were doing everything in their power 60s and living quietly in a Belfast sub- goods and terrorism-related conspiracy. inside me,” he recalls. “I just ran. It was to catch the killers. “We didn’t question urb, Little denies this. “My position is Bernhardt told the court that he had instinctive. I didn’t know what was hap- the police: that’s what this area is like. that I wasn’t involved,” Little says. But helped arrange the Lebanese arms deal pening but I knew I had to get away.” If they said they would leave no stone he adds: “I would deny it even if I was.” for loyalist paramilitaries in 1987. The Others inside the bar turned when unturned, you took that at face value.” Little confirms, however, that he was four were sentenced to time served the door opened and saw two men in By the time the 10th anniversary of a founder member of UR, and a central and fined between 20,000 and 100,000 boiler suits, their faces hidden by bala- the killings came around, Rogan was figure within the organisation at the francs (£2,000-£10,000 then). clavas. One of the intruders dropped to anxious to learn more about her father’s time that the weapons arrived in Bel- Brian Nelson was finally arrested in one knee and fired three bursts from an death, and hear of any progress the fast. He also appears to possess detailed January 1990 after John Stevens, then automatic rifle. Barney Green was sitting police had made. A series of meetings knowledge of the way in which the arms deputy chief constable of Cambridge- with his back to the door, close enough was organised between senior investiga- were smuggled and distributed. shire, had been brought in to investigate for the gunmen to reach out and tap tors of the Royal Ulster Constabulary The weapons arrived in Belfast in collusion between the security forces his shoulder had they wished. He took and the victims’ relatives, and later December 1987, a few days before and loyalist paramilitaries in Northern the first blast, with around nine rounds more information emerged when the McMichael was killed by an IRA car Ireland. At court, a plea deal resulted passing through him before striking police ombudsman for Northern Ireland bomb. Early in the new year, they in Nelson being jailed for 10 years after other men. Green, a retired farmer, was published a report in 2011 on the investi- were split three ways at a farmhouse he admitted 20 offences, including con- 87. gation. Relatives of the dead men came in County Armagh. The UDA lost its spiracy to murder. Green’s nephew, Dan McCreanor, 59, to the conclusion, as Rogan puts it, that entire slice of the pie within minutes: its Stevens’ investigation team was well another farmer, died alongside him. A “they had treated us like mushrooms, share of about 100 weapons was loaded aware of concerns surrounding the second burst killed Malcolm Jenkin- keeping us in the dark for years and into the boot of two hire cars that were importation of the weapons. Members son, 53, who was at the bar, and Adrian feeding us whatnot”. stopped a few minutes later at a police of the team talked to former Armscor Rogan, 34, who was trying to escape The getaway car had passed through roadblock near Portadown. The three officials in South Africa, but concluded to the lavatory. A third burst aimed at four owners in the eight weeks before occupants were later jailed, with their that an investigation into the matter was a table to the right of the door missed it was used in the shooting, changing leader, Davy Payne, receiving a 19-year so unlikely to produce any results as to Willie O’Hare but killed his son-in-law, hands so quickly that the first person The victims sentence. be fruitless. However, a senior member Eamon Byrne, 39. O’Hare’s son Patsy, 35, in the chain remained the registered The six who died in the attack, from The following month, police recov- of the inquiry team says he believes it was also shot and died en route to hos- owner. The morning after the killings, a top: Eamon Byrne, Barney Green, ered around half the UVF’s weapons feasible that the UK authorities could pital. Five men were injured: one, who Belfast police officer was asked to call at Malcom Jenkinson, Patsy O’Hare, Dan after a tip-off led them to an outhouse have been involved in bringing the lost part of a foot, would spend nine this person’s home. The officer did so, McCreanor and Adrian Rogan on the outskirts of north Belfast. Little weapons into Belfast – or at least turned months in hospital. but found the man was out. The officer was also arrested, after his telephone a blind eye. “It’s not at all far-fetched,” Loughinisland had been scarcely then recorded the time of his visit as number was found written on the back he says. touched by the Troubles. A village of 9.30am - 34 minutes before the farmer of Payne’s hand. “John McMichael had By the time of the Loughinisland 600 or so people, where Catholics and had rung police to tell them he had dis- given it to him, in case he got into any massacre, loyalist gunmen with access Protestants had lived side by side for covered the car. trouble in Armagh,” Little says. Eventu- to the Armscor arsenal were killing at generations, none of its sons or daugh- Some time between 11am and noon, ally, he was released without charge. least as many people as the IRA. Czech- ters had been killed or hurt before, a second police officer – a detective with Little says that while UR redistributed made VZ-58 assault rifles were used in and none had been accused of terrorist no connection to the murder inquiry a few of its weapons – “there were some many of the killings. A few weeks after offences. It is not a republican area – – telephoned the second person in the deals around the edges” – most of its the shootings at the Heights Bar, the IRA many of its Catholic inhabitants were so ownership chain, and asked him to consignment was kept intact. announced a ceasefire. uninterested in politics that they did not come to the local police station to give a “They were never used. They were Many in Northern Ireland are con- vote even for the nationalist Social Dem- statement. How this detective came to for the eventuality of the British just vinced that the importation of the Arm- ocratic and Labour party (SDLP) – and know that the car had passed through walking away – doing an Algeria – after scor weapons, and the large numbers Protestants often drank at the Heights. this man’s hands is unclear. What is the Anglo-Irish agreement was signed.” of killings that followed, contributed Only by chance were no Protestants known, however, is that a statement As far as he is aware, the consignment greatly to the IRA’s decision. Among killed or wounded that night. was given, and that a note was attached has never been decommissioned. them is Noel Little, who says: “There’s Ninety minutes after the attack, a loy- to it, saying that the individual who no doubt that that shipment did change alist paramilitary group, the Ulster Vol- gave it could be contacted only through Dramatic arrest things.” unteer Force (UVF), telephoned a radio the detective who took it. The following year saw Little arrested Increasingly, the IRA was forced to station to claim responsibility. The Loughinisland families argue again, this time in France, in dramatic defend itself against attacks by loyalists, this amounts to evidence that the per- fashion. He had travelled to Paris with and it came under pressure from nation- Police promises son who gave this statement – one of two fellow loyalists, James King and alists as more and more Catholic people Despite years of death and destruction the people involved in supplying the Samuel Quinn, to meet Bernhardt and were slaughtered. To Little’s way of in Northern Ireland, people around the car used by the killers – was a police a South African intelligence officer thinking, the Armscor weapons “tipped world were shocked by the slaughter informer. Scene of carnage in a Northern Ireland newspaper, was pected of involvement and appeared Pat Finucane that Peter Cory, a retired What happened next is described by operating under the name Daniel Storm. the balance against the IRA and eventu- at the Heights. The Queen, Pope John The Guardian has interviewed this The bloodstained interior of the arrested the month after the shootings to gloss over the forensic failures. It Canadian supreme court judge, pre- a former senior employee with South Officers of the French security agency, ally forced them to sue for peace”. Paul II and Bill Clinton sent messages man. He is Terry Fairfield, and today Heights Bar at Loughinisland, the and released without charge. He was concluded that the destruction of the pared at the request of the government Africa’s Armscor, a man who was inti- Direction de la Surveillance du Ter- Six weeks after the IRA’s announce- of sympathy. Local Protestant families he runs a pub in the south of England. morning after six Catholic men had one of the people who were released car was “inappropriate”, rather than evi- in 2004. An FRU report from July 1985 mately involved in the plot to smuggle ‘I heard a door open ritoire (DST), seized the three Ulster- ment, loyalist paramilitaries announced visited their injured and traumatised Fairfield confirms that he was a member been killed and five others injured in without being fingerprinted and no DNA dence of corruption or collusion. discloses that the army paid Nelson’s the weapons into Northern Ireland. men and the South African in a raid on their own ceasefire. neighbours in hospital, expressing of the UVF at the time, but denies he a loyalist gun attack. Aidan O’Toole, a swab was taken. McMullan firmly denies The report was widely condemned travel expenses when he travelled to According to this source, officials in and then I just heard a room at the Hilton International, at With the Loughinisland families no shock and disgust. was a police informer. He says he did survivor, and Emma Rogan, daughter that he has ever been to Loughinisland in Northern Ireland. Hutchinson agreed Durban in South Africa that year to South Africa introduced a senior figure the same moment that Bernhardt was nearer to discovering the truth about The police told the victims’ families subsequently receive several thousand of one of the dead, below, believe the or that he was ever in the getaway car, to leave his post, and his successor is make initial contact with an arms dealer. within UR to one of the corporation’s crack, crack, crack being grabbed in the foyer of the Hôtel the deaths of their loved ones follow- they would leave no stone unturned pounds from the detective, for helping evidence points to police collusion and no further action was taken against now reviewing the report. There will be “The [British] army appears to have at representatives in Europe, an American George-V, and lifted bodily, according to ing publication of the ombudsman’s in their efforts to catch the killers and him take a firearm and some explo- Photographs: Pacemaker Belfast, him in connection with the shootings. no examination of the arms shipment, least encouraged Nelson in his attempt arms dealer called Douglas Bernhardt. and felt a stabbing one witness, out of the building and into report, they embarked on their civil bring them to justice. sives out of circulation. He accepts that Paul McErlane He acknowledges however that he was however, as the ombudsman’s remit to purchase arms in South Africa for In October 1987, Bernhardt is said a waiting car. actions against the Ministry of Defence The morning after the killings, the being invited to attend a police station, “involved in the conflict”. extends only to the police, not the army. the UDA,” Cory concludes. “Nelson to have flown to Gatwick airport for a pain inside me’ The five had been caught red-handed and the police in January this year. A gunmen’s getaway car, a red Triumph rather than being arrested, was highly The police admitted to the families Much of the suspicion about British certainly went to South Africa in 1985 to face-to-face meeting with a senior UDA attempting to trade stolen parts from letter of claim sent to the MoD says the Acclaim, was found abandoned in a field unorthodox. The detective says he had they had handed the getaway car to involvement in the 1987 arms ship- meet an arms dealer. His expenses were commander, John McMichael, after the sighting system of a ground-to-air claim is based in part on “the army’s seven miles from Loughinisland. The known Fairfield for years and contacted a scrap metal firm to be crushed and ment revolves around Brian Nelson, a paid by FRU. The army appears to have which couriers carried money from the missile that was under development at knowledge of and facilitation of the farmer who spotted it called the police him after hearing of the Loughinisland baled. They said this had been done former soldier who joined the Ulster been committed to facilitating Nelson’s bank raid, in cash, to Bernhardt’s office the Shorts aircraft and missile factory in shipment”, while one sent to the Police at 10.04am. A few weeks later, workmen shooting, but that only members of the because the vehicle was taking up too Defence Association (UDA) in the early acquisition of weapons, with the inten- in Geneva. ‘We didn’t question Belfast. The apartheid regime wanted to Service of Northern Ireland says the found a holdall under a bridge a couple murder inquiry could decide whether to much space in a police station yard. 70s. In 1985, Nelson offered himself as tion that they would be intercepted Bernhardt was not told where the use the parts in the development of its claim arises from a series of failings, of miles from where the car had been arrest him. That decision means it can never again an informant to the Force Research Unit at some point en route to Northern money had come from, according to the the police. If they own missile for use in Angola, where its including “closing off investigative found. Inside were three boiler suits, A second man, who is widely sus- be tested for comparison with samples (FRU), a covert unit within the army’s Ireland.” Armscor source. “When you get that ground forces were vulnerable to attack opportunities” and “the destruction of three balaclavas, three pairs of surgical pected locally of having been in the taken from any new suspects. intelligence corps that recruited and Nelson is said to have told the FRU sort of dirty banknote, you don’t ask,” said they’d leave no by Cuban-piloted MiGs. vital evidence”. gloves, three handguns, ammunition getaway car, and who is also alleged to ran agents in Northern Ireland. He quit that the UDA possessed insufficient the source says. Bernhardt obtained a Storm was set free after claiming Rogan and O’Toole remain tormented and a magazine. Not far from the bridge, have been an informer, has also told Families’ disbelief the UDA the following year and moved funds at that time to purchase any bank draft which was then sent to an stone unturned, you diplomatic immunity, while the oth- by the events of June 1994. O’Toole, police found a Czech-made VZ-58 the Guardian that he has never been Emma Rogan and Aidan O’Toole cannot to Germany with his wife and children. arms. “The evidence with regard to arms dealer in Beirut, who had obtained ers were interrogated in the basement who still has a bullet lodged in his kid- assault rifle, which scientists confirmed arrested. believe that the destruction of the car The FRU, operating with the approval the completion of the arms transaction the weapons from a Lebanese militia. took it at face value’ of the DST’s headquarters in the 15th ney, becomes emotional when he walks was the weapon used to kill the men at The families also question the or other failings in the investigation of MI5, approached Nelson in Germany is frail and contradictory,” Cory says. As the operation progressed, accord- arrondissement. “I was slapped about a into the Heights Bar. “It’s guilt,” he the Heights. failure to take samples from were an accident. They believe that and persuaded him to return to Belfast As a result, “whether the transaction ing to the Armscor source, Bernhardt little,” says Little. “But not too much.” whispers. “They died in here, while I The same weapon had been used the some of the people arrested this is evidence of police collusion. to rejoin the UDA as an army agent. was consummated remains an open would regularly call his UR contact at The DST told Bernhardt it had listened was keeping the bar.” previous October in a UVF attack on a for questioning. The Guard- “They knew exactly what they were For the next three years, Nelson was question”. his place of work. This man would then ‘The British didn’t in on a meeting the previous night, Both say they are angered even more van carrying Catholic painters to work ian understands that at least doing,” Rogan says. paid £200 a week by the government In July 1987, the funds to purchase call back from a payphone, and they through a bug in the chandelier of the by the evidence of inaction and failure at Shorts aircraft and missile factory in five of the men arrested in The families lodged a com- while operating as the UDA’s intelli- a large consignment of weapons were would talk in a simple code, referring get all the weapons. room at the George-V where the men that they have discovered in recent Belfast, in which one man died and five the months after the shoot- plaint with the police ombuds- gence officer, helping to select targets secured with the robbery of more than to the weapons as “the parcel of fruit”. had gathered. “They knew all about the years, and by the signs of collusion that others were wounded. ings were not fingerprinted man for Northern Ireland. When for assassination. He informed his army £325,000 from a branch of Northern At each stage, Bernhardt is said to have Maybe they were fruit code used in 1987,” the Armscor have slipped slowly to the surface, than In the months that followed the before being released the ombudsman, Al Hutchinson, handlers in advance of attacks: only Bank in Portadown. The proceeds of the been told that the arrangements needed source says. “They thought the talk they are about the killings themselves. Loughinisland shootings, nine people without charge. No DNA published his report, it contained two were halted, while at least three robbery were to be used to purchase to be agreed by McMichael and by his happy to have that about pineapples was a huge joke. They And after 18 years, both use the were arrested and questioned. All nine swabs were taken from mild criticism of an investigation that people were killed and attempts were weapons that were to be split three ways intelligence officer – Brian Nelson. must have been monitoring the phone same phrase to describe the way they were released without charge. A 10th either of the two ­people displayed “a lack of cohesive and made on the lives of at least eight more. between the UDA, the UVF and Ulster “Every­thing had to be run by the head material “arrive”…’ calls. And they knew all about Lebanon. believe their friends and relatives were was arrested and released the follow- arrested in 1996. focused effort”. To the anger of the A detailed account of this extraordi- Resistance (UR), a paramilitary organisa- of intelligence.” “My guess is that the British were regarded, both by the gunmen and by ing year, and two more suspects were One man, Gorman McMullan, families, it refused to state whether nary operation appears in a report on tion set up by unionists in response to Bernhardt is said then to have trav- intercepting those phone calls. But the those institutions they looked to for arrested for questioning a year after who has been named as a suspect or not police informants were sus- the loyalist killing of the Belfast solicitor the 1985 Anglo-Irish agreement. elled by ship to Beirut, where arrange- British didn’t get all the weapons. How protection: “They were expendable.”