MI5 court appearance (1)
01 January 1991
MI5 court appearance
artdoc May=1993
After a two month trial and four days deliberating their verdict
the jury at Caernarfon crown court found a young Welshman, Sion
Roberts, guilty of sending four incendiary devices to prominent
Conservatives and senior police officers. The same jury acquitted
two others, David Davies and Dewi Williams, of conspiracy to
cause explosions (Roberts was also acquitted on this charge).
Dewi Williams had been described by the prosecution of being the
articulate leader of the group. This was the first trial in which
MI5 officers gave evidence in court.
The trial arose out of the second homes, arson campaign
organised by Meibion Glyndwr which has produced more than 200
reported incidents since 1979. The prosecution case rested on
investigations by the North Wales police, its Special Branch and
Special Operation Unit and MI5 (the internal Security Service).
The cornerstone of the case against three men was the `terrorist
cell theory' which the jury rejected in throwing out serious
charges of conspiracy.
In November 1991 there were 38 MI5 officers following Roberts
at a protest march in Caernarfon. A few days earlier over 20 MI5
officers kept Davies under observation. This surveillance was
supplemented by burglary and bugging (for this MI5 would need a
warrant signed by the Home Secretary, see Statewatch vol 1 no 2).
In November 1991 MI5 agents entered Roberts's flat and placed
bugs and hidden videos cameras in it (some of the tapes were
shown to the jury). On 5 December they entered his flat again and
the four officers found explosive devices - Roberts' defence
counsel unsuccessfully argued that the agents planted this
evidence because of their inability to find hard evidence. These
two operations were code-named `Seabird' and `Mountain'.
The day after the second raid four suspicious packages were
found at Bangor post office - one was left to experts and two
were taken by a policewoman in the back of her car to the police
station. The three defendants were arrested in December 1991 and
held in custody until their trial in January 1993.
The trial
The three men were charged with conspiracy to cause explosions
during 1991 and Roberts was also charged with possession of
explosives and sending devices through the post with intent to
maim or disfigure four men - Detective Inspector Maldwyn Roberts
(head of a special squad investigating Meibion Glyndwr); Sir Wyn
Roberts MP (Minister of State for Wales); Elwyn Jones,
Conservative agent for North Wales; and Chief Superintendent Gwyn
Williams, head of North Wales CID.
At the beginning of the trial the judge, Mr Justice Pill,
rejected a prosecution request for the proceedings to be held in
camera, he also rejected a public interest immunity certificate
signed by the Home Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, designed to
suppress all evidence relating to MI5's activities. Four MI5
agents gave evidence, Mr A, B, C, and D, from behind a specially
erected screen. They admitted, in giving evidence, that they had
taken no contemporaneous notes during the operation.
Near the end of the trial, on 3 March, the Attorney General,
Sir Nicholas Lyell, confirmed that: `an authorised jury vet was
carried out... I authorised the jury check'. Jury vetting can be
ordered, according to the guidelines, only when a case concerns
`serious offences where strong political motives were involved
such as IRA and other terrorist cases and cases under the
Official Secrets Act'. By this process potential jurors are
`weeded' after checks police, Special Branch and MI5 - defence
lawyers never know who has been `weeded' out.
This was the latest in a string of unsuccessful police raids
and trials against Meibion Glyndwyr. In 1980 the police detained
52 people without charging any of them in `Operation Fire'. In
1983 the Cardiff Explosives and Conspiracy trial the jury failed
to accept the conspiracy charges and three of the<