NI: N Ireland: The Stalker Affair (feature)
01 May 1995
Another stage in the Stalker Affair ended on 26 June when Kevin Taylor, once a millionaire and supporter of the Tory Party, accepted an out of court settlement in his civil action against the former Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Sir James Anderton. He had sued Anderton for malicious prosecution after charges against him for fraud had been dismissed in 1990. The basis of his civil action was that he was targeted for investigation to discredit his long time friend, John Stalker, then Deputy Chief Constable of the Greater Manchester Police. Stalker, who had been appointed to investigate six fatal shootings in Northern Ireland, had reached conclusions which were highly critical of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). Reasons had to be found to remove him and they therefore concocted the fraud charge against him to discredit Stalker.
The civil action began on 15 May was expected to last nine months. But it is understood that the Legal Aid Board had advised Mr Taylor that, unless he accepted money put into court by Municipal Mutual, his future legal aid might be in jeopardy. After the settlement Mr Taylor, who had already turned down £625,000 at the beginning of the case and was believed to be seeking £10 million, said I am not satisfied. It is a fraction of what my claim was . He claimed that the offer was made to prevent him from making serious disclosures.
The background
The story begins in May 1984, when Stalker was asked to undertake an investigation into three separate shootings: the deaths of Eugene Toman, Sean Burns and Gervaise McKerr, all shot dead in Lurgan on 11 November 1982; the death of Michael Tighe and the wounding of Martin McCauley in a hayshed just outside of Lurgan on 24 November, 1982; and the deaths of Seamus Grew and Roddy Carroll in Armagh on 12 December 1982. All six men had been shot by members of a special RUC unit.
Two years later, on 29 May, 1986, Stalker was removed from the investigation and suspended from duties in Manchester just three days before he was due to complete the last part of his investigation in Northern Ireland. Although he was not initially told of the allegations against him, he was under suspicion of associating with known criminals and misusing police cars. Colin Sampson, Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, replaced Stalker on the Northern Ireland investigation and was also asked to investigate the disciplinary allegations against Stalker.
Conspiracy or Coincidence?
Much of the press were highly critical of his removal and many supported the notion that officials were conspiring to pervert the course of justice. The affair has led to numerous books which deal with different aspects and suggest different interpretations of what actually occurred. Frank Doherty in The Stalker Affair (Mercier Press, 1986) places the events in the context of illegal operations by British intelligence and security services in cross-border activities. According to this view Stalker had to be removed before his investigation did irreparable damage to these activities. Doherty places his analyses against the backdrop of political intrigue and corruption in high places. He argues that MI5 was at the centre of the affair. If Stalker had been allowed to continue, their whole system of covert cross-border activity based around an informer network would have been threatened. MI5 were therefore heavily involved in Stalker s removal and the framing of Taylor.
The next book to be published was Peter Taylor's Stalker: The Search for the Truth (Faber and Faber, 1987). This book is based around his report for Panorama, Conspiracy or Coincidence?, which was shown on 16 June 1986, just three weeks after Stalker was suspended. The first part of the book describes the events in Northern Ireland and the second moves to Manchester and deals with the Quality Street Gang, the suspicions over Kevin Taylor's yacht, the Diogenes, and Taylor's and Stalker's downfall. Peter Tay