McGartland witnesses ‘not told of suspected IRA link’
REVIEW OF TERRIFYING SHOOTING CASE
WITNESSES took part in an identity parade after the Marty McGartland shooting, without being told the suspects could be linked to the IRA, it has been claimed.
The former spy, who was gunned down in Whitley Bay 20 years ago, says he has been told that 17 local people took part in the procedures, but were not informed until afterwards that the shooting could be connected to terrorism.
The Chronicle has heard recordings of conversations between Marty and detectives from Bedfordshire Police, who have carried out a review of Northumbria Police’s handling of the shooting probe.
And now the victim has claimed officers put people’s safety at risk by asking members of the public to point the finger at potential IRA members.
Marty, 49, said: “They put these people in danger. There’s absolutely no doubt that if the IRA had thought anybody was going to pick somebody out of an identity parade they would react.
“The review officers told me most of these people were very, very angry.”
Belfast-born Marty infiltrated the IRA during the height of the ‘Troubles’ in the 1980s on behalf of the British Secret Service.
After his cover was blown in 1991, he was kidnapped and only escaped being killed by jumping from a third-floor window.
Marty then fled Northern Ireland and hid out at a safe house, on Duchess Street in Whitley Bay town centre, where he took on a new identity.
But on the morning of June 17, 1999, he was shot six times at close range while sat in his car outside his home.
The masked man who fired the near-fatal shots has never been caught.
Marty has spent the past 20 years living in hiding, and has been involved in a long-running dispute with Northumbria Police about the way the force handled the shooting investigation.
In the days after the gun attack, detectives made a number of appeals for witnesses.
And officers released information suggesting the attack could have been linked to local criminals and not Marty’s former life in Northern Ireland.
He has long been frustrated by the failure the catch the killers, and believes police actively “covered up” the IRA’s involvement.
Northumbria Police has since apologised for suggesting Marty had links to local crime gangs.
The shooting victim contacted Bedfordshire Police to ask its Chief Constable, Jon Boutcher, who led an investigation into the alleged crimes of a suspected double-agent codenamed ‘Stakeknife,’ to carry out a review of Northumbria Police’s investigation.
Boutcher agreed and officers from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire forces carried out a “major crime unit investigation review”.
The Chronicle has seen a redacted copy of their findings, which states that Northumbria Police should have classified the case as a ‘terrorist incident’ not an attempted murder.
The report said: “The attack on Mr McGartland is, in the professional view of the reviewing team, more than speculatively connected to Irish Republican Terrorism.
“This should have been acknowledged both to the victim and to the media at the time.
“The review team are of the opinion that this investigation should have been classified as a ‘terrorist incident.’ The SIO classified this as an ‘attempted murder.’”
Marty has alleged potential IRA links to his shooting were played down due to political sensitivities, as at the time the Good Friday Agreement was delicately balanced and a ceasefire was in place.
However, the report said detectives chose the ‘less complex option,’ meaning they missed out on the additional resources potentially available to a terrorism investigation.
Northumbria Police said that the force is now reviewing its classification of the incident, and would not comment further on the issue of the identity parade.