IRA man passed information to security forces, tribunal is told

A MAN believed by sections of the RUC to have been involved in the notorious south Armagh brigade of the Provisional IRA passed on information to British security services, the Smithwick Tribunal has been told.

Giving evidence from behind a screen to protect his identity, a former senior detective inspector from the RUC said he initially knew and interviewed Kevin Fulton on the basis that Mr Fulton was a member of the Provisional IRA.

But the former detective, referred to only as “Witness 60”, said he later came to know Mr Fulton as a provider of “good information” to “a number of organisations”, among them branches of the security services in Northern Ireland.

Witness 60 said that on one occasion he was personally aware of the information provided by Mr Fulton – who was also known as Peter Keeley – had saved lives.

But he said Mr Fulton became an “intelligence nuisance” as his information became less reliable over time. He refused to sanction the use of Mr Fulton by the RUC under his command.

Witness 60 told counsel for Mr Fulton, Neil Rafferty, he had believed Mr Fulton had been a member of the Provisional IRA, despite the decline in the quality of information. Witness 60 said he had not been aware of allegations that Mr Fulton had been exposed as a British agent in 1994.

Further evidence of the activities of the south Armagh brigade of the IRA was given by a former senior RUC chief inspector in Newry, Harmon Nesbitt. Mr Nesbitt said he had met Bob Buchanan on the afternoon of March 18th, 1989, two days before Supt Buchanan and Chief Supt Harry Breen were killed in an IRA ambush in south Armagh. He said in the course of a conversation lasting about an hour, Mr Buchanan had told him he expected to be visiting Dundalk Garda station on the following Monday in connection with a joint police action against smuggling.