Dropping of spy case ‘not a political decision’

BRITISH Attorney General Peter Goldsmith yesterday denied there was any political interference in the decision by prosecutors in Northern Ireland to drop charges against three men accused of spying at Stormont.

In a reply to the House of Commons' Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, the Attorney General said the decision to drop charges last month against Denis Donaldson, Ciaran Kearney and William Mackessy was informed by facts and information provided by the province's Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, in November.

And while he admitted consulting Cabinet colleagues a year ago about whether they had any information relating to the case, Goldsmith said it formed no part of the Public Prosecution Service's move to collapse the case.

Goldsmith said in the letter to committee chairman Patrick Cormack: "The Director and I recognise the potential this decision has particularly the limited explanation that has been given for it to damage confidence in the new Public Prosecution Service.

"If it were possible for further explanation to be given, the Director and I would have provided it in order to avoid that very risk.

"Regrettably, to do so might be liable to give rise to the very damage the decision to discontinue was intended to avoid.

"I therefore particularly welcome your letter so that I may give you, and the Committee, my absolute assurance that there was no political interference and there was no question of the decision being taken to cover any possible embarrassment to the Government."

The dropping of the case triggered a sensational turn of events which led to one of the accused, Mr Donaldson, Sinn Fein's former head of administration, being unmasked publicly by party president Gerry Adams last month as a British spy.

The arrests of Mr Donaldson, his son-in-law Mr Keaney and civil servant Mr Mackessy in October 2002 led to the suspension of the Stormont Assembly and power-sharing government by the then Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid.

Since the case's collapse and the revelation that Mr Donaldson was working for police and Army intelligence, MPs have demanded more information.

In a letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair last month, Cormack urged him to put as much information in the public domain as possible.