Downpatrick man’s murder now linked to IRA informer

2 December 2015

THE murder of a Downpatrick man by the IRA in 1994 is one of dozens being linked to terrorist godfather turned army informer, Freddie Scappaticci.

Twenty three year-old Michael Brown was kidnapped by the provisionals in April, tortured and shot before his body was found just over the Irish border near Omeath. The IRA claimed he had been informing for RUC Special Branch but Brown’s family always denied the claim.

The investigation which is to take place into the activities of Freddie Scappaticci, who has achieved notoriety as the security force agent known as Stakeknife, will examine the case of Michael Brown who was one of the last alleged informers killed by the IRA before the ceasefire.

Brown, who was found dead on April 29 wearing a boiler suit with his hands tied behind his back, was kidnapped and interrogated by the IRA’s internal security unit, known as the “nutting squad”, which was led by Scappaticci.

The deaths of up to 50 people have been linked to Stakeknife and there have been allegations that the security services allowed low level informers to be murdered to protect their prize informer.

The provisionals had been looking for an informer in the Downpatrick area since the 1991 killing of local IRA commander Colm Marks who was shot dead by undercover policemen as he prepared to launch a horizontal mortar against a police patrol car in St Patrick’s Avenue.

Brown had lived in Rathbeg Close in the Model Farm, but was originally from Co Leitrim. Republicans have confirmed he was an IRA volunteer but not someone who would have had the detailed knowledge necessary to allow the RUC to set up the operation against Marks.

IRA operations in the greater Downpatrick area almost ceased after Marks’ death and two prominent provisional terrorists from Castlewellan moved away from the area, so concerned were republicans about the threat posed by the mole.

The uncovering of several small weapons caches linked to the IRA in later years confirmed the informer was still in place and further heightened republican concerns.

It is not known what prompted the IRA to kidnap Brown and take him for interrogation but after his death the IRA claimed he had made a detailed confession. Brown is alleged to have told his interrogators he was recruited by RUC Special Branch just before Easter 1990 when he was threatened with prosecution over an assault and hit-and-run accident.

The IRA claimed Brown told them he gave low-grade intelligence to his handlers and was paid between £20 and £140, depending on the value the police put on his information.

In March 1992 he was given weapons to store but he told the IRA he destroyed the hide a year later when he saw heavy RUC activity in the area.

The IRA statement says Brown claimed on one occasion he was warned by Special Branch he was about to be arrested by CID detectives and should refuse to answer questions or reveal he was an informer.

After Brown’s murder the IRA regrouped in east Down and on August 8 a gunman walked into the Crossgar butcher’s shop of Trelford Withers and shot him three times. The part time member of the Royal Irish Regiment was the last IRA victim before the organisation declared its cessation of violence later that month.

The gunman, who escaped on a motorbike, was a prominent IRA terrorist from Castlewellan.

The IRA campaign in east Down ended on Friday, August 26, the day before the provisionals announced a ceasefire, when a 150lb barrack buster mortar exploded prematurely as it left it’s launcher in a yard off St Patrick’s Avenue.

A van, which had been stolen in Dublin and fitted with a single mortar tube, was driven into the yard of the Avenue Bar and positioned facing the nearby police station. Extensive damage was caused to local businesses by the premature explosion which only managed to break one window in the RUC base.

The PSNI this week moved out of the Irish Street base into a new purpose-built complex in the Downshire Estate.

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