A former Northern Ireland Special Branch chief admitted in court yesterday that potentially vital evidence was kept secret from the Stalker inquiry into an alleged RUC "shoot-to-kill" policy.
Mr Trevor Forbes said an audio tape recording from a transmitter installed in a hay barn where two young men were shot by RUC Special Branch officers in 1982 was "wiped", and he told the officer in charge of the inquiry, Mr John Stalker, the recording did not exist.
The reason for the secrecy, he said, was to protect a surveillance device which was of great value in combating terrorism.
Mr Forbes was giving evidence for the Sunday Times in its defence of a libel action brought by a documentary film-maker, Mr Sean McPhilemy (52), over claims that his programme on alleged RUC collusion in murders committed by loyalist paramilitaries was a hoax.
Mr McPhilemy is suing over an article claiming his 1991 Channel 4 documentary The Committee was a hoax based on unsubstantiated rumours and lies.