A FORMER British army agent who infiltrated the IRA yesterday denied he took part in murders carried out by the organisation.
Kevin Fulton, also known as Peter Keeley, told the Smithwick Tribunal inquiring into claims of Garda collusion in the IRA murders of two RUC officers in south Armagh on March 20th, 1989, that he had helped the IRA abduct Cooley farmer Tom Oliver for “questioning” and had seen him gagged and “trussed up like a chicken” in the back of a van.
He said Mr Oliver had been betrayed by a member of Dundalk Garda station, Det Sgt Owen Corrigan, who had told the IRA Mr Oliver was passing information on them to the Garda.
Mr Oliver was murdered by the IRA in July 1991 but Mr Fulton said this happened during a second abduction, after he had left the country and he was not involved in the killing.
Mr Fulton also denied he was involved in the murder of 34-year-old RUC officer Colleen McMurray, who was killed in an IRA attack in Newry in March 1992. Newspaper reports to the contrary were incorrect, he said.
However, Jim O’Callaghan SC, for Mr Corrigan, said Mr Fulton was a “pathological liar” and “a fantasist” who could not be trusted.
Mr O’Callaghan said that when Mr Fulton had described Mr Oliver bound and gagged in the van, he had in fact been describing Mr Oliver’s “final hours” and not an initial questioning. He said Mr Fulton had been one of the murder gang.
Earlier, Mr Fulton had recounted a series of occasions on which he said Mr Corrigan had assisted the IRA – including the murder of two RUC officers in 1989.
However, Mr O’Callaghan claimed details of these events were inconsistent and inaccurate, and when examined showed Mr Fulton was telling lies. He asked how Mr Fulton could claim to have been out of the country when Mr Oliver was murdered, when his book Unsung Hero had maintained he was in Ireland at the time.
He also said Mr Fulton’s evidence that Mr Corrigan had provided information to the IRA which led to Mr Oliver’s murder was incorrect as Mr Corrigan had left the Garda by the time Mr Oliver was killed. Mr O’Callaghan also took Mr Fulton through a claim that Mr Corrigan had destroyed evidence left by one of the Narrow Water bombers. The bomb at Narrow Water Castle at Warrenpoint, Co Down, caused the British army’s largest single loss of life in the Troubles. It was detonated from the Republic and Mr Fulton claimed Mr Corrigan had removed material, possibly including a firing mechanism.
But Mr O’Callaghan said Mr Corrigan was not involved in the investigation proper and his role was confined to one interview with a suspect.
Mr O’Callaghan also said a claim that Mr Corrigan had destroyed evidence relating to a bomb find in Omeath, Co Louth, was incorrect. He said Mr Corrigan was again not involved in this investigation.
Similarly Mr O’Callaghan said a claim that Mr Corrigan had tipped off the IRA that two RUC officers were in Dundalk Garda station was incorrect. Mr O’Callaghan said the claim was that Mr Corrigan had telephoned the IRA after two RUC officers arrived in Dundalk station for a meeting, at about 2.10pm on March 20th, 1989. The two officers were murdered minutes after leaving the meeting at about 3.25pm.
However, Mr Fulton agreed with Mr O’Callaghan that the timeline envisaged would not have allowed the IRA to carry out the murders.
