"There was a wall of silence for a long, long time." "I used to ask Mum quite often, "Have you heard anything, Mum?" ""Has anybody spoken to you?"" "And the answer was always the same." "And then, I just stopped asking Mum, because I knew in my heart that for some reason, and I don't know what that reason is, there was never going to be any proper information or any investigation." "Unsolved." "Unresolved." "Terrible crimes from the Troubles in Northern Ireland." "But these are no ordinary killings." "This is the story of why the State is accused of standing in the way of truth and justice." "It's the story of how the State helped and protected killers - killers of innocent people." "It's why the past will not - cannot - simply go away." "Once a suspicion, now a fact." "There were murderers on the Government's payroll." "There was impunity really, for these people to go on committing their crimes." "Many of them were killers and some of them were serial killers." "This is the final journey of the only reporter murdered in the Northern Ireland conflict." "He was gunned down in the street after exposing the Protestant paramilitaries who ran his home town." "Martin O'Hagan had been writing about Loyalist killers," "Loyalist drug dealers for years - even though he knew that some of them lived within a mile or so of his own home." "When he was murdered, the newspaper headline read," ""Fearless."" "Within a week, we had meetings with the police, and the police were telling us within a week they knew who it was." "The police have known since then, we've known since then... ..the people of Lurgan have known since then." "Everybody knows." "And when you rule everything else out, you come to one conclusion - that these people are being protected." "Martin was shot just yards from his home." "It was September 2001 - long after the ceasefires." "The Troubles, we were told, were over." "You used to babysit for him?" "Used to babysit for him, yeah." " Did he pay you well?" " No, he never paid me!" "He always promised me, but he never paid me." "Eh, our Martin, he never had money." "And if he did have money, he'd have shared it with you." "Martin O'Hagan's murder remains unsolved, but the evidence points to a Protestant terrorist group - the Loyalist Volunteer Force, or LVF." "Its leadership hated Martin O'Hagan, because he wrote about their criminality." "This story would be very typical of what Marty did." "Here, he hints at the name of a leading Loyalist." "This was the sort of story that the LVF, and the drug dealers within the LVF, would have hated." "Jim Campbell had been his boss at the newspaper where they worked." "He's convinced Martin had got too close to a dirty secret - how the police were working hand-in-glove with LVF paramilitaries." "I've always believed that the LVF was a wholly owned subsidiary of the RUC Special Branch." "Within that organisation, of the maybe two dozen or three dozen people that Marty and I knew, most of them would have been informers." "Most of them would have been working for the police." "I entirely refute that suggestion." "It was a terrorist organisation that I and many of my colleagues relentlessly pursued and locked many of them up." "I also accept, however, that people may have a view." "They may have allegations, they may even be substance to some of those allegations, or in particular relationships and particular individuals and incidents." "If that's the case, take it to the Police Ombudsman and I'd welcome an investigation, because there will be no hiding place in my organisation for people who have been involved in criminality." "The O'Hagans took their case to the Police Ombudsman nine years ago." "They believe informants murdered Martin and were then protected." "You're saying that the police are protecting informants?" "Yes, definitely, there's no doubt." "They've got psychopaths in their employ, and they're keeping them psychopaths in society, to feed them back information and to do..." "Maybe to do their dirty work, I don't know." "But they're keeping them in society, so the cure's worse than the disease." "The Ombudsman's investigation was delayed, because the police wouldn't release crucial intelligence files." "In fact, the police refused to hand over evidence to the Ombudsman in a total of 60 murders." "All the killings have one thing in common - the State has been accused of involvement." "The allegations may seem far-fetched, but Panorama has sifted through official reports and investigations." "We've found extraordinary details that have slipped quietly onto the public record." "Damning evidence that shows how State agents killed and were protected." "When I first heard about it, I didn't think that could be possible." "They were running informants and they were using them." "And their argument was that by so doing, they were saving lives." "And hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people died, because those people were not brought to justice and weren't stopped in their tracks." "Bessbrook, South Armagh." "Built by Quakers as a model village, more than 150 years ago." "It was a place apart." "Bessbrook was like a wee cocoon." "It was shut off from the horrors that was happening in Crossmaglen and Belfast and other parts of Northern Ireland." "When the killings came, they came with a whirlwind, one bloody weekend at the start of January, 1976." "First, six Catholics were gunned down by a Loyalist murder gang." "The next evening, ten Protestant men from this very village were singled out and shot dead by the IRA." "A simple, brutal equation." "But is the truth more complicated?" "The men were stopped at Kingsmills while travelling home from work." "They came up to this series of bends... ..and the road was climbing ahead of them." "As they just got up here to the brow of the hill, they were waved down by what they took to be an Army patrol." "Just here." "And that was the beginning of the nightmare for Alan Black and the community of Bessbrook." "He told us all to put our hands up on top of the minibus." "And the next thing he said, "Right."" "And the noise of the gunfire..." "I'll never, ever forget it." "The noise was deafening." "And what they'd done, they'd shot us all at waist height, to stop anyone running properly." "And it went on for..." "I don't know how long." "There was only one man ever spoke." "And he said, "Finish them off."" "They started to go round, shooting to finish us off, so I lay as quietly as I could and there was a bullet that hit me in the head, but it didn't penetrate my skull, it grazed me." "Alan Black suffered 18 gunshot wounds." "He was the only survivor." "I knew the boys were dead, because there was absolutely no sound." "HE SIGHS" "No-one has been convicted of the murders." "Relatives feel the case has never been properly investigated." "There was a wall of silence for a long, long time." "I used to sort of ask Mum quite often, "Have you heard anything, Mum?" ""Has anybody came and spoken to you?"" "And the answer was always the same." "And then I just stopped asking Mum, because I knew in my heart that for some reason, and I don't know what that reason is, as yet, but there was never going to be any proper information" "or any investigation." "The Protestant community traditionally trusted the State as its protector." "But for people like Alan Black, that trust has been replaced by suspicion." "He's been told crucial evidence, including his own witness statement, has been lost." "You think they're hiding something?" "They're definitely hiding something." "The first thing they'd done, they said that they had a fire and files were lost." "Then they had a flood and files were lost." "Then they had an explosion at the barracks and files were lost." "Then they had asbestos contamination and files were lost." "Why are they doing this on us?" "Why are they withholding all this?" "What are they so afraid...?" "Why are they afraid of the truth?" "What is it that they're hiding?" "Panorama knows the identities of some of those believed to have been involved in the murders - and it is clear that within weeks of the attack, police knew their names, too." " Do you know who was responsible?" " Yeah." " Yes." " You know their names?" " Yes, so do the police." "The Police Ombudsman is now investigating if there was any State involvement in the killings." "Alan Black thinks the security forces may be covering up an agent's role in the massacre - an informer working in the IRA murder gang." "We didn't hurt anyone." "We were the innocents in all this." "The families that are suffering to this day over it... ..to protect one informant?" "The question is, just how far was the State prepared to go in its war on the IRA?" "The secrets are buried in thousands of classified government documents." "Few outsiders have seen them - but Denis Bradley has." "I used the word, that the past is quite "explosive"." "And a very senior member of MI5 said," ""No, that's not the word I would use." ""It's not explosive, it's not going to blow up." ""It's a tsunami, it'll come from below."" "The State's most closely guarded secret was its agents and informants." "Special Branch, the Army and MI5 recruited them to save lives, but some of them were already killers." "It came with the territory." "The bottom line is, these organisations existed to - at the end of the day - kill people." "And yes, we recruited people with, as it were, blood on their hands." "That's what we were engaged in and that's what we were employed to do - to get information." "And the best information comes from within the organisation themselves." "And that's the reality of the life in which we lived." "OK, let's put these guys to bed!" "Come on, away we go!" "Come on, lads!" "West Belfast, Gaelic Football." "This is Billy McManus - mainstay of this Belfast team for more years than he cares to remember." "At 47, the first team call-ups aren't as regular." "Well, I first kicked the ball for St Malachi's 36 years ago." "I'm the old boy of the team, so." " The oldest by far!" " I'm the oldest swinger in town." "This year will be my last." "Well done, lads!" "Six members of this one club were killed in the Troubles." "A mural remembers the dead in the heart of their community, on Belfast's Lower Ormeau Road." "We got together and we decided to put a mural on the wall." "There's one of me, catching the ball with one hand, as per usual." "How come you're on it?" "I just got my photo took one day and the girl put me on it." "My dad couldn't go on it, because he wasn't a member of the club, where I was." "Billy's father, Willie McManus was shot dead in February 1992, along with four others at a local bookmaker's." "An attack designed to strike at the heart of this community." "Unknown to either of us," "I had crossed paths with Billy at the bookmaker's that day." "I was a young TV reporter, and I was filming in that building there, doing a story that had absolutely nothing to do with the Troubles at all." "Suddenly we heard sirens, ambulances - didn't hear the shootings at all, just the ambulances." "So, we came out onto the street here and looked up and all we could see was chaos and panic." "AMBULANCE SIREN" ""Back out of the way there - police!"" "All the dead were Catholic - the killers claimed it was to avenge the murder of eight Protestants by the IRA." "Our cameras caught a young man waiting outside the bookmaker's for news of his father." "I tried to get in and I couldn't get in, because there was a big man and he wouldn't let me in." "I told him, I said, "Listen, my father's in there,"" "and he wouldn't let me in." "And then my good friend came out and he came right over to me and I said, "Brian, where's my father?" "Where...where's my daddy?"" "and he wouldn't answer me, he wouldn't..." "I kept looking... "Brian, is my daddy all right?"" "Then he just turned round and said," ""Billy, he's gone - they're all gone."" "He says, "Your daddy's dead."" "No!" "Five dead." "Billy knew them all." "Mr Duffin..." "Jack Duffin was a gentleman, an absolute gentleman." "Very close friends with my daddy." "Well, Mr Docherty was a very quiet man." "Wee Peter, wee Belfast lad, happy-go-lucky." "And then there was the child, as we call him" " Wee James." "A wee boy, 15 years of age - he was a child, that's what we call him." "He was just a wee child." "No-one has ever been convicted of their murders." "The families believe the killers were informants who have been protected." "This is why." "One of the murder weapons had been given to the terrorists by a soldier at an Army barracks." "An informant later handed the gun to the police." "The police then returned the gun to their agent inside the terror group." "They claimed it had been deactivated." "But this very gun was then used to kill a man in a Belfast pub, before it was used to kill again in the Ormeau Bookmaker's." "And that's not all." "Suspects passed through police checkpoints - not once, but twice that night." "Evidence began to disappear." "Police claimed the second murder weapon - an assault rifle - had been disposed of..." "..along with key interview statements." "All this is now being investigated by the Police Ombudsman." "Can you give any guarantee that informants weren't involved in the Ormeau Road bookie shooting?" "No, I'm not going to give any guarantees this side of an Ombudsman's investigation." "I'm not being defensive" " I welcome the Ombudsman's investigation." "If it comes out that there's uncomfortable news for the police service in that, then we will deal with that." "But initially, police had refused investigators access to key intelligence files." "Faced with the same road block in 60 cases, the Ombudsman took the police to court." "Then - and only then - did the police back down." "What I couldn't have, in the context of the work that we were doing, a situation to arise where those that were the subject of investigation could ultimately determine what information was given to us as investigators." "Did the police hamper your investigations?" "The police response to my request for information and the failure to give information certainly delayed the investigation." "It was a new Police Chief Constable who ordered the hand-over of the files." "I have shown that we're prepared to work with the Ombudsman, but there is a need to understand the sheer magnitude of what we're dealing with." "We're talking about rooms full of material." "Some of it is very sensitive, some of which, if it's released in the wrong circumstances, would be outside of legislation." "Some of it, if it's released in the wrong circumstances, could put lives at risk." "The Ombudsman's investigation has already been going for eight years..." "There was a Browning handgun, which was used in the murders." "..but it is only now starting to make progress." "How are you?" "How did it go?" "It was grand, yeah." "Can you tell us what you learned today?" "We can't say too much, because it's an ongoing investigation." "But the families got good news and it's going in the right direction." "These investigators seem like they're determined to find out what was behind it and who was behind it." "That's the guarantees that they've given us." "We discovered later why the families were so pleased." "The assault rifle used in the shooting - the one supposedly disposed of by police - has been found." "And the investigation has now expanded." "Panorama can reveal that the Police Ombudsman has now linked nine other murders to the bookmaker's shootings." "Collusion is alleged in all these cases." "It was the State that organised this." "they knew that this was going to happen, they knew that them guns were being given out to murder people and they let it happen." "This was a State murder, organised by people of the..." "People who was supposed to protect you and solve murders, not commit them." "Almost from the start of the Troubles, the Catholic community has claimed that the State was colluding with Protestant paramilitaries in the war on the IRA." "GUNFIRE" "Such claims had been dismissed, as the State presented itself as an honest broker between two warring factions." "But we now know that wasn't always true." "Mr Finucane, hi." "Can I just ask you a couple of questions?" "This is solicitor Pat Finucane." "We've asked the court to say that there is no power under the Coroners Act to make a rule saying that witnesses can't be compelled to give evidence." "He was investigating State killings, when elements of the State conspired to kill him." "It is his murder that most starkly defines collusion - and the lengths to which the State will go to cover it up." "He was shot 14 times as he sat down for dinner with his wife and three children." "These are the findings of the Government's official review, carried out by Sir Desmond de Silva." "MI5 propaganda fuelled a whispering campaign that the solicitor was an IRA man." "And one or more police officers proposed Mr Finucane as a target to the killers." "Employees of the State and State agents played key roles in the murder." "An Army agent, Brian Nelson, had targeted Mr Finucane for murder." "And senior Army officers lied to the police to cover up the State's role in the killing." "Most importantly, Sir Desmond says he is - and I quote " ""Left in significant doubt as to whether Patrick Finucane" ""would have been murdered, had it not been for" ""the different strands of involvement by elements of the State."" "Long suspected, now established - the State's role in political assassination." "John Finucane was eight years old when he witnessed his father's murder." "My father was quite a prominent defence solicitor in Northern Ireland, at that time." "We certainly feel that because of his success that he became a thorn, essentially, in the British Government's side, because he effectively used the law against them." "The Government says, "Lessons have been learned."" "But despite all the admitted wrongdoing by the State, no action will be taken against those responsible." "The Government says it is too late, as many are now retired." "The Government have accepted that they colluded in the murder of my father and not one person has been made accountable for that, save for the man who admitted that he was in the house that night." "But as we have said, long ago, we're not interested in who pulled the trigger, we're interested in who pulled the strings." "The family insist that only an independent public inquiry will expose the full truth of collusion." "But even without it, details have begun to emerge." "One investigation discovered how police were running and protecting a slew of agents in one Loyalist murder gang in north Belfast." "We found collusion on a massive scale - murders, intimidation, directing terrorism, attempted murders, drug smuggling..." "The list of crimes is endless." "These were crimes effectively supported by the State." "The security forces were allowing terrorists to get away with murder." "I think it was a pattern of activity." "I think it was systemic, that you handled informants, you let them commit crime, the normal rules for dealing with informants..." "The authorities had decided they did not apply to the terrorist situation." "There was impunity, really, for these people to go on committing their crimes." "To committing murder, impunity to kill?" "Including murder, yeah, yeah." "Many of them were killers and some of them were serial killers." "Were informants protected?" "Were informants who were involved in serious crime," " in murder, were they..." " No." " ..effectively protected?" " No." "Well, to my personal..." "I can only answer to my own stewardship of the thing." "I do not know of any informant that was protected in relation to murder." "We both know of cases where people got involved in multiple murders." "People were involved in one murder, then another murder, then another murder - and all the while being paid by the State." "Those cases need to be, as it were... in detail, examined, and taken before the courts." "Lord Stevens has examined the evidence." "He led three inquiries into collusion in Northern Ireland." "His final reports remain secret, but he says informants were, in fact, creating mayhem." "There was the RUC, MI5 and the Army doing different things." "When you talk about intelligence..." "Of the 210 people we arrested, only three weren't agents." "It's a remarkable public statement from one of Britain's most experienced policemen." "CHEERING AND GUNFIRE" "But it passed almost unnoticed." "Of 210 suspects arrested, 207 were informants." "Many were involved in criminality, even murder." "Lord Stevens has now told Panorama that the security forces had thousands of informants in Northern Ireland's terror gangs." "It's the first time the sheer scale of the counter-intelligence effort has been revealed." "So was the State involved in a dirty war?" "When you look at the figures - 3,500 people killed," "47,000 people injured." "36,000 shooting incidents." "16,000 bombing incidents." "Now, that, by no stretch of the imagination, is normal policing, by any means." "And it required a robust intelligence-gathering response." "Did we get it right all the time?" "Definitely not." "Was there officers within the military and within the police who were rogues, in the sense that they signed up with the paramilitary?" "Definitely so." "But those were individuals." "They weren't part of any systemic process, or any dirty war scenario." "The Government agrees." "It says that the vast majority of those who served in the security forces did so with distinction." "Collusion should never happen and the Government has apologised where it did." "But with each inquiry, the number of murders linked to agents of the State rises." "We've looked through public documents that relate to just two of these informants." "We've found that between them, piecing the bits of evidence together," "They were linked to 29 different murders." "They're State-sponsored serial killers." "Mark Haddock, a paid police agent in a Loyalist terror gang in north Belfast " "20 murders." "Brian Nelson, the paid Army agent who targeted Pat Finucane - nine murders." "But the true extent of Nelson's murderous campaign may be far greater." "Lord Stevens told Panorama that the Army agent was helping direct attacks for all Loyalist terror groups across Northern Ireland." "He may be linked to many dozens of killings." "So, why was the Army running such an agent - a man who directed murder?" "General Sir John Waters was head of the Army in Northern Ireland." "He denies that his officers colluded in the murder of Pat Finucane, or that they lied to the police investigation." "He told us the de Silva Review was deeply unfair and a great disservice to many brave people." "But he wouldn't answer our questions about why a paid Army agent was linked to so many murders." "General Waters?" " General Sir John?" " Yes?" "My name is Darragh MacIntyre, I'm with BBC Panorama." "Hello." "Goodbye." "General, we have written to you..." "I'm not going to talk to you." "..and you have refused to answer our questions." "But these are grave matters." "Do you accept these are grave matters?" "I am taking advice from my very experienced solicitor." "The Army have been accused of aiding the targeting of victims by Loyalist terror groups." " I know." " Do you accept any personal responsibility for the wrongdoing?" " I have no comment to make." " This happened under your watch, General." "Lots of things happened under my watch." "Do you accept that there was any wrongdoing?" "General, do you accept there was any wrongdoing?" "He refused to speak to us in correspondence and he is maintaining that stance today." "No-one in the military, no-one in the police has been held accountable for the wrongdoing that was identified by Sir Desmond de Silva." "He had got married and settled down, went to university, got a job in the Sunday World." "Done his best, worked hard." "Three girls - and he would be a grandfather now." "Sunday World journalist Martin O'Hagan was determined to expose paramilitaries on all sides." "Here he is, in 1987." "He was visiting a high-security prison to report on a Loyalist protest and was mistaken for a supporter." "I'm up from the Sunday World to talk to this man!" "In 1973, Martin O'Hagan had been jailed himself, for his part in Republican violence." "But he had long abandoned conflict, and embraced the peace process." "He thought he was safe." "He thought the peace process was taking hold and he loved it and he wanted to be part of it and he wanted to move things along." "In 2008, the family thought a breakthrough had been made in his case - the main suspects had been arrested." "Five men were eventually charged in relation to the murder of Martin O'Hagan." "All were linked to the Loyalist Volunteer Force." "But the case fell apart - and Panorama can reveal why." "Prosecutors were relying on the testimony of a so-called "supergrass"." "But late into the case," "Special Branch produced paperwork that undermined his credibility." "It proved that the supergrass was a sworn member of the LVF - but he hadn't admitted this to prosecutors." "The case collapsed before reaching trial." "Special Branch had known of this evidence for more than a decade - yet it was not provided, even to the detectives investigating Martin's murder." "For such crucial evidence to have been deliberately withheld, speaks to the fact that the..." "Either the Special Branch or the security services were deliberately attempting to sabotage this prosecution, to protect their paid agents from prosecution." "In effect, guaranteeing them impunity for murder." "Claiming that it's deliberate - isn't that a big jump?" "There could be no other explanation as to why this evidence was not in the hands of the Public Prosecution Service." "Panorama has discovered that the Special Branch officer involved is now being investigated on suspicion of perverting the course of justice." "What do you think, when you learn this information is not revealed to the police that are actually investigating your brother's murder?" "Shocked." "Shocked and sickened - and especially when we have supported the police, when we have worked with the police, put our faith in the police." "Everything leads to one conclusion." "That one conclusion is that a force within the police, or exerting pressure on the police, is colluding to protect these people." "This is the funeral of the LVF founder - and the man playing the pipes is one of those suspected of the killing of Martin O'Hagan." "He is Drew King." "He strenuously denies involvement in both the LVF and the murder." "But over months, I've spoken to well-placed sources in the world of Loyalism - and they say that King was one of the killers." "Mr King, how are you?" "Darragh MacIntyre from BBC Panorama." "Mr King, I'd like to talk to you about the murder of Martin O'Hagan." "Mr King, we've been told that you were involved in the murder of Martin O'Hagan - is that true, Mr King?" "Mr King..." "Are you being protected, Mr King?" "Mr King, would you mind telling me - do you know anything about the murder of Martin O'Hagan, Mr King?" "Mr King, are you being protected?" "Mr King, can you tell me why Martin O'Hagan was killed?" "Was Martin O'Hagan killed because he was writing about you and writing about the LVF, Mr King?" "Drew King doesn't want to speak to us." "It's not the first time that a journalist has been targeted by suspected Government agents." "Jim Campbell survived, despite being shot five times in 1984." "Why were you shot?" "It was because I had been writing about a Loyalist gunman from Mid Ulster, called Robin Jackson, highlighting the fact that he'd been involved in several killings." "Robin Jackson was one of Northern Ireland's most notorious paramilitaries." "The courts have established that soldiers and serving police officers were members of his squad of killers." "This part of County Armagh was where they planned their attacks." "A village here gave rise to their name - the Glenanne gang." "Known as "the Jackal", Jackson had a role in dozens of murders." "A former soldier, it's understood that he was also a police informant." "I have been told that he was protected by one of the most senior policemen in Northern Ireland." "Jackson is dead - so, too, is the policeman who protected him." "But the horrors linked to Jackson's Glennane gang continue to stack up." "The Miami Showband killings - three dead." "The Dublin-Monaghan bombings - 34 dead." "The murders of Trevor Brecknell," "Seamus McKenna," "Patrick Falls," "Marion Bowen," "Michael McKenna." "Names, lives." "More than 120 murders - and the list grows with each year, as more information comes to light." "An official investigation has since concluded that the role of security force personnel in killings by the gang should have rung alarm bells all the way to the top of government." "It's about three miles from Glenanne to Kingsmills - for ever associated with that bloody weekend of January 1976." "Remember, the bloodshed had started with the murder of six Catholics." "We now know these killings were at the hands of the Jackal and his Glenanne gang." "A gang run by a protected terrorist killed Catholics - and the IRA murdered ten Protestants in revenge." "Did you feel guilty yourself, because you had survived?" "I still do." "Oh, why kill them?" "39 years on... ..I still can't make sense of it." "Speaking for my brother..." "I mean, he was so tolerant, he was so compassionate to people." "And so honest." "This is why we're here today, you know?" "Because this is important to us, that, you know, those lives were taken so brutally and so violently, and here we are, sitting 39 years later and we are trying to find truth and justice." "The families refuse to give up their search for the truth." "Almost four decades after the massacre, they've been granted a new inquest." "It's given them access to thousands of documents, including Alan's original police statement." "It turns out it wasn't lost, after all." ""I finished work at 5.15 and as usual," ""I made my way out to the front of the factory" ""and got into the firm's red-coloured Ford minibus."" "The documents have revealed that two of the suspects were already told that they wouldn't be arrested." "It was part of the Government's secret deal with so-called "on the run" IRA suspects." "A third suspect is this man, Colm Murphy." "He's denied it, but the allegation is remarkable, because Colm Murphy has already been held responsible in the civil courts for the deadliest attack in Northern Ireland - the Omagh bomb." "Two of the most horrific events of the Troubles - and he is linked to both." "I hate the term, "The Kingsmill Dead"." "To me, they're still real people." "They're not just names." "They're not just names." "They're real people." "But while the families have one set of priorities, the authorities have another." "I have to prioritise dealing with the present over dealing with the past." "I have to save lives today, I have to keep people safe today and that has to take priority over dealing with some of these legacy issues." "And I don't say that dismissively, I say it with a heavy heart, because these are difficult judgments to make and difficult decisions to make." "Some families have already been waiting more than 30 years for an inquest." "Now, it's been announced some cases may not be heard until 2040." "Is the justice system here failing victims in historic and legacy cases?" "The justice system at the moment isn't capable of dealing with a system of the past." "It's failing them, then?" "If the system isn't funded and doesn't have the resources, and doesn't have the right institutions to deal with the issues of the past, then certainly, victims are being failed." "The Government has promised an extra £150 million to deal with historic issues." "New proposals, including a special investigations team, have been agreed." "But they may not be up and running for at least two years." "But could it be that the very darkest moments of the Troubles are still not in public view - hidden in the secrets of the intelligence world?" "It was just meant to be." "I think she was meant to be the one." "Everything was so good and we were so good together." "Are you still in love with her?" "Yeah, I think I'll always be in love with Colleen." "I was kept downstairs in the hospital." "I said look, I want to see her." "It didn't matter what way she looked, I wanted to see her." "And I was allowed in and she was... ..lying on a bed..." "..and she had lost her eyes." "She had quite horrific injuries." " Did you speak to her?" " I did." "I just told her my feelings and... ..and that..." "I can't remember the complete words, but I just kept speaking over and over to her and her wedding ring was on her finger and we always said never to take the wedding rings off." "I just concentrated, I spoke more or less to it, rather than to her face, because she was quite badly...injured." "Colleen McMurray was killed in 1992, when an IRA rocket struck her patrol car in the border town of Newry." "She was one of more than 300 RUC officers killed in the Troubles." "Back then, Philip - a police officer himself - blamed the IRA, plain and simple." "Letters were sent from all quarters, expressing condolences." "This is a letter from a colonel in the Ministry of Defence." "This is from the Chief Constable of Northern Ireland's police force." ""Through her work, she was making an important contribution" ""to the restoration of peace in Northern Ireland."" "Sorrow, regret, from the highest offices in the land - but no mention of the role played by the State that night." "Or the fact that it was a State agent inside the IRA who had helped develop the very particular device used in the attack." "I worked with a bomb team based in Dundalk." "They developed bombs, they developed, you know, explosives, everything." "Peter Keely worked as an undercover agent for the Army," "MI5 and Special Branch." "We have agreed not to show his face." "Did you help develop explosives, explosive devices?" "Yes, I became part of that team and I was there and I was able to see what way developments were going." "He says he was not involved directly in the murder, but he says he helped design the technology that fired the rocket remotely." "Did the security services know about this technology?" " They did, yes." " How did they know about it?" "Because I told them." "Peter Keely says he told his handlers that the IRA was planning an attack - using the simple but deadly new detonator." "They knew the name of the person who had this device." "This person was a very big key player." "So, I had told them about that and that he had a car, it was ready to go." "I did not know where it was going, but they knew he had it, he had control of it." "We have verified that Keely met with the security services in London two weeks before the killing." "And we've spoken to police officers who say they received warning of an IRA attack in Newry, that day." "Philip McMurray believes somebody in the security services allowed the attack to go ahead." "It's not an easy thing to think of, with the background that both me and Colleen had." "But I think..." "In my opinion, something definitely wasn't right." "To the point that you believe that someone in the security services was prepared to sacrifice a police officer, prepared to sacrifice someone like Colleen?" "In my opinion, yes." "Yes." "All the evidence from the murder scene has disappeared." "And a police station log book which recorded threats has also vanished." "To uncover the truth," "Philip McMurray approached the Police Ombudsman in 2004." "You met with the husband of Police Constable Colleen McMurray." "What did you say to him, when you first met him?" "I said I was expecting to see him." " Why did you say that?" " I was fairly sure there was an informant who'd been protected in the case and it just seemed to me that sooner or later..." "..he would make his way to our door." "And I believe that agent has been protected over a number of years." "Not just in relation to that crime, but in relation to other crimes." "Do you believe that the security services were prepared to sacrifice a police constable that night, to protect an agent?" "No." "I think that may have been a mistake." "But the murder wasn't solved and that's where I think the problem is." "I think the problem is that they had an agent who was bringing in equipment which could be used to blow people up, and I believe that to be the case." "Peter Keely says his work as an agent meant he had to break the law." "But it also protected him from prosecution." "Were you a serious player in this world?" "Well, some people, it's up to them what way they view it." "I mean, I got a few people caught and jailed." " Terrorists." " Saved lives?" " Absolutely, yeah." "Did you take life?" "It has been alleged." "I can't answer that question, because there's ongoing police investigations." "There was no talk of investigations back then." "How much impunity did you have?" "An easy way to describe it is, I walked on water." "The State paid an agent who helped develop a bomb that killed a police officer." "Then all the evidence goes missing." "Now, truth and justice seem lost, too." "I think I'll always be fighting it." "I'll always be looking for truth, because I'd be letting Colleen down if I didn't." "11 years after he lodged his complaint with the Ombudsman," "Philip McMurray is still waiting for a final report." "Some truths of Northern Ireland's Troubles are seeping into public view." "But only because of the efforts of those families who have battled for decades to get to the secret intelligence files, to get to the truth." "Those stories can be told, they should be told." "As long as they stay in files, they will continue to pollute the political atmosphere." "So, if the British Government thinks that the past is going to go away mysteriously, it's not going to happen." "In this modern world, the media and victims will keep after those records, from now to kingdom come." "For the relatives of those killed in the Ormeau Road bookmaker's, there has also been another startling discovery." "It's about the assault rifle that the police said had been disposed of." "The families already knew it had been found - now they've been told exactly where." "It's almost beyond belief." "That's the Imperial War Museum - and that's where the rifle used in the Ormeau Road bookie's shooting was found - on display." "Evidence from an unsolved multiple murder that somehow ends up as a museum piece." "Inside the museum, you can still see where the murder weapon was displayed." "It has also now also been linked to two other unsolved murders." "Crucial evidence from a police investigation, secretly moved to a military museum." "The State seems to want to treat the Troubles as history." "But for Billy and the other families, the memories haven't faded." "You've never been in it since, have you?" "No." "Wouldn't go in it." "Never been in it." "I drink in the wee bar where my father drinks." "I drink with people who drunk with him." "They tell the old stories and I walk by it everyday and I look up at the photograph and..." "I know it never leaves you." "Investigations continue into the role of agents in dozens and dozens of killings." "Once, it was unimaginable that the State would have murderers on the payroll." "Not any more." "Martin O'Hagan's brothers are taking matters into their own hands." "They're offering a £50,000 reward for information about the killers." "I've been doing this here for 13 years and I'll continue to do it and if I'm not doing it, one of me other brothers will be doing it." "One of us will always be doing it, will ALWAYS keep going, until we get to a satisfactory conclusion." "The families won't give up until they know exactly what role the State played in the killings - what the State did, or didn't do." "I want the truth" " Karen wants the truth." "All the families, they can all handle the truth, no matter how awful it is - but we do want it."