Man charged with murder of Sinn Féin informant Denis Donaldson

Antoin Duffy appeared before Special Criminal Court having been extradited from Scotland earlier on Monday

Denis Donaldson: Shot dead on April 4, 2006. File picture: Paul Faith /PA

A 49-year-old man has been charged at the Special Criminal Court with the murder of Denis Donaldson, a former member of the Provisional IRA and senior Sinn Féin official who was exposed as an MI5 informant months before he was shot dead in Donegal.

Antoin Duffy, of Braade, Kincasslagh, Co Donegal, appeared before the three-judge, non-jury court having been extradited from Scotland earlier on Monday with the help of the air corps.

He is charged with six offences, including Mr Donaldson's murder and a separate attempted murder of a man named Liam McGinley on November 19, 2007, at Meenaboll, Churchill in Donegal.

Det Garda Adrian Aherne told the court that he arrested Mr Duffy at 1.22pm at Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnell in Dublin. At 2.35pm, Det Garda Aherne said he again met Mr Duffy at the cell area of the Criminal Courts of Justice building and handed him a copy of the charge sheet.

A solicitor for the State applied for an order to have Mr Duffy tried on all six charges at the non-jury court. In relation to the murder and attempted murder charges, the solicitor said the Director of Public Prosecutions had certified that the ordinary courts are not adequate to hear the trial.

Mr Justice Patrick McGrath agreed to make the order.

The court registrar read the charges to Mr Duffy, who spoke only to confirm his identity. He is charged with possession of a shotgun and ammunition with intent to endanger life between April 3 and April 4, 2006, at Cloghercor, Doochary, near the Glenties in Donegal.

On the same date and at the same location, he is charged with Mr Donaldson's murder.

He is further charged with possession of a shotgun and ammunition with intent to endanger life at Churchill in Donegal on November 19, 2007. On the same date and at the same location, he is charged with the attempted murder of Liam McGinley.

Duffy, who is originally from Donegal, has been in prison in Scotland following his conviction there in 2015 for his part in a plot to murder members of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA).

Gardaí issued a press release earlier on Monday, saying that members of the Donegal Division investigating Mr Donaldson's murder had arrested a man in his late 40s following his extradition from Scotland.

The arrest was carried out with the assistance of An Garda Síochána Extradition Unit, Garda National Bureau of Investigation, and the air corps.

Denis Donaldson was a former member of the Provisional IRA and a high-ranking Sinn Féin official. He is associated with senior members of the party, including former party president Gerry Adams.

His fatal shooting at the age of 55 has been under investigation for nearly 20 years. In 2002, when Mr Donaldson was Sinn Féin's top administrator working in the Northern Ireland Assembly in Stormont, he was charged with involvement in an alleged spy ring. 

Three years later, the charges were dropped and within days, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) informed Mr Donaldson that he was about to be exposed in the media as an MI5 informer.

Mr Donaldson met with senior republicans and admitted that he had been working for the British intelligence unit, MI5, and the Special Branch unit of the RUC for more than 20 years. 

On December 16, 2005, Mr Donaldson held a press conference in Dublin in which he publicly acknowledged his role as a double agent. He removed himself from public life and went to live at an isolated cottage near the Glenties in south-west Donegal, where he was shot dead on April 4, 2006.

The dissident republican organisation, calling itself the Real IRA, later claimed responsibility for the murder