Three people may have died in Derry because of a decision by an Army
Intelligence unit not to seize weapons being stored by an IRA informer, The
People can reveal.
Officers from the Force Research Unit who recruited Derry republican Franko
Hegarty in the 1980s helped him to become quarter-master of the Provisional
IRA in the city.
But when Hegarty finally got his hands on a cache of weapons, it left the
FRU with a dilemma.
His handlers could tip off the RUC to seize the weapons or track them -
blowing Hegarty's cover - or leave them and place the lives of soldiers,
RUC officers and civilians at risk.
The Force Research Unit bosses chose the latter, believing that to expose
Hegarty would risk losing more vital information later.
The weapons were taken from the hide in the city cemetery by Hegarty and
given to the FRU whose officers test-fired them, checked their ballistics
and returned them to the hide.
They decided against bugging the hide and they decided against 'jarking'
the guns - that is, fitting them with tracking devices or making them
inoperable.
We can reveal today (Sunday) that the reason they didn't jark them was because they
would have had to involve the RUC to do that.
There was a problem at that time, given the critical stage of Agent 3018's
(Hegarty) development.
If the weapons had been jarked, 3018's security would have been affected.
Therefore his potential as an agent, not just in Derry but possibly even in
the IRA's northern command, would have been compromised.
During holy week, 1984, Hegarty gave one of the weapons to a senior IRA
member.
The FRU had allowed Hegarty's weapons to remain untouched before, and it is
certain that one British soldier died as a result. Another one, and a
civilian, may also have been sacrificed.
On Easter Monday, April 23, 1984 Private Neil Clarke of the 2nd Battalion,
the Queen's Regiment, was with an armoured patrol in Bishop Street in Derry
when rioters struck with sweet jar petrol bombs.
Clarke jumped out of the back of his Land Rover as his uniform caught fire
and IRA sniper Paddy Deery opened fire.
Clarke was hit in the head and died instantly. He was just 20.
The FRU could have had access to the rifle used in the murder but chose to
leave it, and a number of other weapons, fearing that to tamper with them
would blow the cover of Frank Hegarty.
The FRU officer John Tobias, who was among those killed in the 1994 Chinook
helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre, had a choice to make.
His team could seize the weapons or track them, blowing Hegarty's cover, or
leave them and place the lives of soldiers, RUC officers and civilians at
risk.
At the time it was seen by Tobias and another senior FRU officer as the
correct decision - but that weapon was used in subsequent murders.
Two other people died and others were injured in a series of attacks
involving Paddy Deery and Hegarty's weapons.
Private Martin Patten was shot dead as he walked with a colleague and two
girls back to their barracks at Ebrington on September 22, 1985.
And on November 21, German-born businessman Kurt Konig died after being hit
15 times with weapons from the 'Hegarty hide'.
The lives of all three may have been saved if the FRU commanders had acted
differently.
The weapons were eventually seized in January 1986 after Hegarty informed
his handlers that they were being held by an IRA member in Shantallow.
Forensic officers confirmed three rifles found with pistols, magazines and
ammunition had been used in the Clarke, Patten and Konig murders.
Within three weeks Hegarty told the FRU he knew where £1m worth of weapons
from Libya were located.
Gardai later seized those weapons and Franko Hegarty was forced to flee
Derry.
He returned in April 1986 and was found shot dead near the border the
following month - executed by the IRA's nutting squad.
