IRA informer unreliable, claims former MI5 officer

DISGRACED former MI5 officer David Shayler claimed yesterday that he was told an IRA informer who alleged Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness told him he fired the first shot on Bloody Sunday was a “bullshitter”.

Mr Shayler, aged 37, told the Saville Inquiry in London that when he worked for MI5 in the 1990s another officer told him the informer, known only as Infliction, was not reliable.

Mr Shayler was sentenced to six months in jail last year after he was convicted of breaking the Official Secrets Act by disclosing information to a national newspaper.

He served seven weeks at Ford open prison, near Arundel in West Sussex and was released on December 23 last year under a scheme in which prisoners are let out early and electronically tagged.

On his release Mr Shayler was met by his girlfriend, Annie Machon, and another former MI5 officer, who is also due to appear before the Saville Inquiry.

Mr Shayler was not screened when he appeared at the inquiry in Methodist Central Hall in London today, unlike most of the other MI5 witnesses, because he did not apply for the measure.

He told the inquiry he joined MI5 in November, 1991, and in August, 1992, began work in the section countering threats on the mainland originating from Ireland, T2.

Mr Shayler said that he first came across Infliction in 1993 while he was dealing with another target and went to a source in Section T8, which ran agents, to seek an assessment of his reliability: “I cannot recall the name of the person I spoke to in T8 but, in telling me about this source, he used the phrase ‘this guy’s a bullshitter’.”

“I asked for more details which I could refer to in my assessment of my target.

“He told me that Infliction had at one time been totally believed and was regarded as reliable.

“Then there was a case where they had initially gone with Infliction, when his information was contradicted by another source and it was found that the other source had been accurate.”

The Saville Inquiry is examining the events of January 30, 1972, when 13 civilians were shot dead by British soldiers during a civil rights march in Derry.

A 14th person died later.

A senior MI5 officer yesterday said Infliction was a leading member of the Provisional IRA and was close to Martin McGuinness.

Infliction claimed in 1984 that the Sinn Féin MP had told him he fired the first shot on Bloody Sunday from a Thompson sub-machine gun.

However, Mr McGuinness has denied the allegation.

Infliction’s MI5 handler, Officer A, has already challenged Mr Shayler’s evidence, insisting the informer was generally honest and reliable.

Officer A said Mr Shayler did not know Infliction’s identity and would not have had enough information to make any sort of judgment about his reliability.

The inquiry, which usually sits at the Guildhall in Derry, is currently hearing evidence from military witnesses and others in London because of concerns for their safety.