TYH/042

OMAGH SPY GAGGED OVER OMAGH BOMB

OMAGH victim families group chairman Michael Gallagher believes that a British agent who infiltrated the IRA has been gagged to stop him giving evidence at the trail of Sean Hoey or any subsequent inquiry into the atrocity which claimed 31 lives, including unborn twins, on August 15, 1998.
Mr Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed in the Omagh bombing, said, "It's in the interest of truth and justice that agents such as Kevin Fulton are allowed to tell their story - either in a court of law or any inquiry. Now we learn that he could implicate himself and face further charges if he does so.
"Our suspicion is that he has been gagged."
The man who uses the cover name "Kevin Fulton" was arrested in London on November 1, flown to Antrim and questioned about incidents in the Newry area in 1990 and 1991.
It is understood that he has now been advised by his lawyers not to reveal details of the secret war against republicans by British agents, including himself. 'That means he will not appear as a witness at the current trail in Omagh Crown Court sitting in Belfast of Sean Hoey from Jonesborough, Co. Armagh, the only person charged with involvement in the 1998 Omagh massacre. He had been expected to give evidence about British and Irish agents working inside the Real IRA at the time.
'Fulton' was also expected to appeal before a planned public inquiry into collusion in the Republic.
Fulton has claimed the British security forces had prior knowledge that an attack on a town north of the border was imminent on the weekend of the Omagh bomb.
He is already said to have passed on to Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan, two names of agents working for the disgraced Forces Research Unit of the British Army at the time of the Omagh bomb. Mrs O'Loan has recommended that both men be questioned in relation to the atrocity and their possible role in it.
According to yesterday's Observer newspaper, a former Forces Research Unit agent handler who calls himself Martin Ingram, said that Fulton's arrest and interrogation this month has effectively, "gagged" him.
"By arresting him during the trial, Fulton has had any chance of immunity from prosecution taken away. Not only is he in grave danger of implicating himself if he was to give evidence of the 'dirty war' to the Omagh trial, he is now unable to speak about it to the inquiry in Dublin," Ingram said.
Following his arrest and removal to Antrim police station's serious crime suite, Fulton was questioned about his alleged role in a series of IRA attacks including a so-called "human bomb" attack on a British army checkpoint in South Armagh in 1990 that killed a Royal Irish Regiment soldier, and the murder of a rival republican in Newry a year later. Fulton was held for five days and released without charge.
The Observer pointed out that, instead of being questioned by the Historical Inquiries Team, the specialist police unit that was granted £30 million to investigate all unsolved crimes during the Troubles, Fulton was arrested and interrogated by Officers from C2, the elite murder squad of the Police Service of Northern Ireland which has no designated role in crimes committed during the early 1990s.