CAN DNA TRAP THE MEN WHO SHOT IRA MOLE?
New twist in probe into 1999 shooting
A FRESH twist in the unsolved shooting of an ex-IRA mole on Tyneside can today be revealed.
Police probing the Whitley Bay shooting of Martin McGartland are investigating unknown DNA left at the scene.
Mr McGartland was ambushed by a masked man who shot him six times outside his home in North Tyneside in 1999.
In the wake of the assassination attempt, police released information suggesting the attack could have been linked to a local gang feud – and not his former life in Northern Ireland.
Northumbria Police later apologised for the smear.
Now, an officer handling the investigation has written to Mr McGartland to inform him he is looking into an unidentified DNA sample left at the scene of the crime.
It is hoped the evidence will finally unmask the would-be hitman.
The letter said: “I am pursuing a line of enquiry in this case regarding the unidentified DNA at the scene. We have recently obtained a sample that has eliminated a further individual.
“This had been an outstanding enquiry for some time and I hope the fact that this has been completed provides you with some assurance investigations are ongoing and that I am active in trying to progress this enquiry.”
It added: “A forensic review is awaited and I will seek to have this progressed soon when the scientist is available.
“There remains a key line of enquiry that I am actively seeking to pursue. This relates to the unidentified DNA.”
Mr McGartland welcomed the fresh inquiry and said: “I would really hope that any new evidence being investigated will result in the person who tried to kill me being arrested, put before the courts and convicted.
“Even 18 years after this happened it is still having a real, life changing affect on me.”
Belfast-born Mr McGartland infiltrated the IRA in the 1980s during the height of ‘The Troubles’ on behalf of the British Secret Service.
But his cover was blown in 1991 when he tipped-off police about a planned attack on a pub in Bangor, County Down.
He was kidnapped by the IRA and only escaped being killed by jumping from a third-floor window.
Mr McGartland then fled Northern Ireland and hid out at a safehouse in Whitley Bay, where he took on a new identity and became known as Martin Ashe.
But his real identity was revealed when he appeared in court on a series of minor driving offences.
And it did not take long for those wanting to avenge his actions to track him down to his new home on Duchess Street.
On June 17, 1999, Mr McGartland was shot six times by a masked man who blasted him at close range as he sat in his car in the rear lane.
The father-of-three only survived thanks to the actions of the family who lived next door and rushed to his aid.
To this day, no one has ever been charged with Mr McGartland’s attempted murder.
Northumbria Police confirmed they were investigating forensic evidence from the scene of the crime.
A spokesperson said: “There is a routine forensic review being conducted into Martin McGartland’s case which began recently. Mr McGartland has been kept informed about the investigation.”
Mr McGartland has since written two books about his undercover work, Fifty Dead Men Walking – named after the estimated number of lives he is said to have saved during his time as an IRA mole – and Dead Man Running.
In 2008, a film based on the book Fifty Dead Men Walking, and of the same name, was released starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Rose McGowan.