Paddy Hillyard, Professor Emeritus, Queen’s University, Belfast
Decades of Deceit: The Stalker Affair and its Legacy was published in July 2024 by Beyond the Pale Books.
What is the book about?
In 1981, MI5 introduced in secret a counter-insurgency strategy which transformed policing in Northern Ireland. It privileged intelligence gathering over the detection and prosecution of crime. An unknown number of state agents and informers were recruited in both communities and allowed to commit crimes, including murder, with impunity.
A year later, John Stalker, Deputy Chief Constable of the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) was appointed to investigate the killings of six young men shot dead by SAS-trained RUC squads in three separate incidents following allegations that the police had adopted a shoot-to-kill policy.
Stalker and his team soon discovered key elements of MI5’s secret strategy and, in particular, that there was no legal framework for running informers and state agents in Northern Ireland. Stalker’s team also discovered that in one incident – the shooting in a hayshed, which Stalker described as ‘the act of a Central American assassination squad’ – the killing had been recorded on tape from a bug planted by MI5. He demanded access to the tape and the intelligence from informers and state agents but was denied.
In the absence of the requested evidence, Stalker submitted an interim report. But 6 months later, he was abruptly removed from the investigation and faced the disciplinary charge of ‘associating with known criminals’ in Manchester.
It later emerged that the GMP had set up a secret unit to investigate Stalker’s friend, Kevin Taylor, a Manchester property developer. Taylor had no criminal record but was rumoured to be involved in drugs and an alleged member of the infamous Quality Street Gang. Many believed that the gang was a myth, but a convenient vehicle to blame for unsolved crimes in Manchester.
Following a disciplinary investigation by Colin Sampson, Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, Stalker was reinstated as Deputy Chief Constable, but he had been removed ‘forever’ from heading up the NI inquiry – a task which Sampson also undertook showing a clear connection between developments in Northern Ireland and Manchester.
Kevin Taylor was later charged not with any drug offence but with fraud. His trial collapsed after it emerged that material from his bank had been improperly obtained and the police were in contempt of court. Taylor then started a civil action against the GMP for malicious prosecution which was settled with Taylor being awarded £2.4 million in damages.
At the time of Stalker’s removal, conspiracy theories were widespread suggesting that MI5, RUC Special Branch, or higher echelons of government, either alone or in some combination, were responsible for his removal.
My book revisits this highly contentious and debated episode in UK political and policing history and presents a forensic analysis of all the available evidence. It concludes that on the balance of probabilities there was a conspiracy to remove Stalker.
The book also explores the legacy of the Stalker Affair. It describes the way in which the authorities were determined to prevent any aspect of MI5’s illegal strategy, of which Stalker was so critical, becoming public.
In 1988, the Attorney General informed Parliament that it would not be in the ‘public interest’ to bring criminal prosecutions as recommended by Stalker, and later Sampson against those involved in the killings ‘as the effectiveness of intelligence-gathering operations would be jeopardised’.
In 1989, two state agents were involved in the murder of Pat Finucane, a Belfast solicitor. Yet despite an international agreement between the British and Irish Governments for a public inquiry, successive British governments refused to do so for 23 years.
Widespread use was made of Public Interest Immunity Certificates to prevent key information becoming public in inquests and civil actions particularly when it was suspected that informers or state agents had been involved in a murder.
In 2023, the Conservative government introduced the Legacy Act which effectively abolished the rule of law for the period of the conflict. It provided further evidence of the relentless attempt to defeat the ends of justice by abolishing police and ombudsmen investigations, inquests and civil actions. It foreclosed any further investigation of the deadly MI5 strategy, prevents employees of the state being prosecuted for developing and executing the illegal strategy and deny truth and justice to the victims.
Why did I write?
I started my academic career in the New University of Ulster in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, in 1969. On 11 January 1972, the British Army shot dead 13 people in Derry during a demonstration against internment. I did not go on the demonstration because of the violence meted out to anti-interment protestors by the British Army the week before. But on the Monday, I went to Derry on behalf of the National Council for Civil Liberties and took statements from those who had been on the demonstration.
I was shocked when Chief Justice, Lord Widgery, in his report ignored most of the evidence and blamed those who organised the march. Years later, it emerged that Prime Minister Edward Heath had made it clear to Lord Widgery that the government was fighting not only a military war but also a propaganda war. He clearly understood the comment and allowed politics to trump the rule of law.
I later focused much of my academic research on the demise of the rule of law during the conflict. So when John Stalker was removed from his shoot to kill inquiry in 1986, I was immediately suspicious that once again the rule of law was being subverted for political ends and was determined to research the affair.
How did go about doing this research?
Following Stalker’s removal, I began to collect newspaper articles and other published material on the affair. When Taylor’s civil action started in 1995, I attended the opening session and met Kevin Taylor. We developed a friendship. He later gave me access to his personal papers. I then used these together with the transcripts from the criminal trial and civil action and many interviews to explore whether or not there was a conspiracy to remove Stalker.