A former military secret agent who claims Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness was kept under surveillance on Bloody Sunday will be allowed to give his evidence from behind a screen next month.
The former agent will also give his evidence under his pseudonym, Martin Ingram, following a ruling by the Saville Inquiry yesterday.
While he was not in Derry on Bloody Sunday, Mr Ingram had a high-level access code in the military intelligence group the Force Research Unit (FRU), and was able to view a lot of the documents pertaining to Bloody Sunday.
In a series of three statements to the Saville Inquiry, he casts doubt on the statement of another agent, codenamed Infliction, who claimed Mr McGuinness told him he opened fire on Bloody Sunday.
But Mr Ingram, in his third statement, does accept that Infliction was an agent.
Mr Ingram also says he believes Mr McGuinness was targeted for surveillance on Bloody Sunday, but that he saw no documents indicating that the Sinn Féin MP opened fire.
In yesterday's (Tuesday) ruling, Lord Saville's Tribunal said it would allow a request for anonymity and screening, after studying material relating to a potential threat to Mr Ingram's safety and his rights under Article Two of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Lord Saville also ruled that anyone wishing to question Mr Ingram should submit a "detailed synopsis" of the matters on which they wish to question him. They should also include their reasons and supporting facts.
Each synopsis would be considered and, if relevant, the Secretary of State for Defence and Mr Ingram would be given an opportunity to object under human rights or public interest immunity grounds.
The Tribunal also ruled that applications by other agents – Observer C, Observer D, Officer H and Officer N – for anonymity would be granted.
Another intelligence officer known as David is to be allowed to give his evidence by video link, as he lives abroad. Lord Saville also ruled that it was unlikely that Officer H or N would be called.
