RUC encouraged us to kill Finucane, claims loyalist

Compelling new evidence indicates that the Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane was killed with the involvement of British intelligence and police officers.

The new material, which is to be broadcast in a BBC Panorama programme tonight, will heighten demands for a public inquiry into the 1989 murder, which remains one of the murkiest and most dubious incidents of the Troubles. A retired Canadian judge has already been appointed to consider the need for such an inquiry. The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir John Stevens, will deliver a report on the case shortly.

The Panorama programme features secret filming of a member of the loyalist Ulster Defence Association, Ken Barrett, admitting on camera that police officers had urged his members to attack the solicitor.

According to Mr Barrett, a policeman told him that Mr Finucane "was an IRA man, he was dealing with finances and stuff for them, and he was a bad boy and if he was out they would have a lot of trouble replacing him".

Mr Barrett added: "To be honest, Finucane would have been alive today if the peelers hadn't interfered. Solicitors were kind of way taboo, you know what I mean? We used a lot of Roman Catholic solicitors ourselves."

He said the UDA assassination squad killed Mr Finucane after the officer confirmed that no security force patrols were in the area. The Barrett admissions are in line with previous claims that police suggested the solicitor should be "taken out".

In the programme, several members of the Stevens investigating team say they believe that Military Intelligence lied to the inquiry on a number of counts, particularly on the issue of the army agent Brian Nelson. Nelson was recruited by the army to infiltrate the UDA and went on to become the central figure in the terrorist organisation's intelligence gathering.

The programme confirms that at one point he took a large quantity of UDA material on suspected republicans to a section of Military Intelligence known as the Force Research Unit (FRU). The unit organised and streamlined the files, then gave them back to Nelson.

A former member of the Stevens team says the team concluded that the FRU worked with Nelson in this way to ensure that the UDA shot active republicans rather than uninvolved Catholics. The former detective sergeant Nicky Benwell says: "There was certainly an agreement between his handlers and Nelson that the targeting should concentrate on what they described as 'the right people'."

Secret Military Intelligence documents obtained by the reporter John Ware contain the comment that "since 6137 [Nelson] took up his position, the targeting is now more professional". Sir John Stevens describes the Nelson affair as "inexcusable".

Members of his team complain that the FRU initially categorically denied running any agents. The former detective chief superintendent Laurie Sherwood describes the FRU's assertion as "a complete lie".

A Military Intelligence claim that the FRU did not know that Mr Finucane would be attacked is described by a Stevens team member as not credible. He goes on to say that the FRU "are not telling the truth about Finucane".

Although Nelson's telephone calls to his handlers were taped and transcribed, the Stevens team could find no details of four calls Nelson made in connection with the death of a Catholic man killed by the UDA. A Stevens team member says this leads him to believe "that there was something in those telephone calls that they wanted to hide".

When the handler involved, a female sergeant, was interviewed about the missing transcripts under caution, she refused to comment.

The team also concluded that a mysterious fire at its own headquarters was arson rather than an accident, as police had insisted. Sir John Stevens said he had received "a very vague warning that something like this might happen".

In another instance the FRU took no action after Nelson told his handlers that the UDA intended to try to kill Alex Maskey of Sinn Fein, who is now lord mayor of Belfast.

The Stevens team also established that Nelson made multiple copies of the files organised for him by the FRU, distributing them to different parts of the UDA and to the other main loyalist group, the Ulster Volunteer Force.

In one case Nelson gave information on Mr Maskey and another man to the UVF, which in return gave him explosives. His handlers approved, noting that if this trade was "successful, it will enhance 6137's standing, particularly if the UVF did attack the targets".