Support Our Work Mailing list About / Contact

Special Branch jail-break fiasco (1)

01 January 1991

Support our work: become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.

Special Branch jail-break fiasco
artdoc February=1992

The escape from Brixton prison on 7 July, 1991 of two suspected
IRA members, Nessan Quinlivan and Pearse McAuley, has seen the
early retirement of the prison governor and the replacement of
the head of the directorate of custody at the Prison Service
office. Moreover, since the escape 57 of the prison's staff have
been transferred out of Brixton. The two men escaped using a plan
drawn by the Special Branch in Staffordshire.
The Staffordshire Special Branch recruited a Brixton prison
warden, an ex-SAS officer, to act as go-between to get
information from the men about their escape network. For five
months the prison officer tried to get the confidence of the two
men but when they asked for a gun they dropped the matter. The
Staffordshire Special Branch then informed the prison governor
and the Metropolitan Police about the project.
The procedure followed by the Staffordshire SB was set out in
the Chief Constable's annual report for 1990 (published in 1991).
It said that their SB had been `heavily involved in two major
terrorist incidents at Lichfield and Milford' during the year.
These incidents involved the murder of a soldier at Lichfield
railway station and the attempted murder of Sir Peter Terry, the
ex-governor of Gibraltar. The report goes on to state that:

The principles adopted and the way in which Special Branch
organised their operation to constantly update the senior
investigating officers was devised in-force and is acknowledged
as being particularly successful. It is understood that the
Staffordshire procedures are to be incorporated in national
guidelines.

If this procedure was followed and the Metropolitan Police
informed of what had taken place in February 1991 - nearly six
months before the escape - it remains a mystery as to why `B'
Squad of SO12 in the Metropolitan Police Special Branch, which
is the national intelligence collation agency on the IRA, appears
to have known nothing about the escape plans.
Hansard, written answer 2.12.91; Guardian 19.11.91; Independent,
21.11.91.

Statewatch, Volume 2 no 1, January/February 1992

Our work is only possible with your support.
Become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.

 Previous article

New head of MI5 (1)

Next article 

Womens' response to violence (1)

 

Spotted an error? If you've spotted a problem with this page, just click once to let us know.

Report error

Statewatch does not have a corporate view, nor does it seek to create one, the views expressed are those of the author. Statewatch is not responsible for the content of external websites and inclusion of a link does not constitute an endorsement. Registered UK charity number: 1154784. Registered UK company number: 08480724. Registered company name: The Libertarian Research & Education Trust. Registered office: MayDay Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DH. © Statewatch ISSN 1756-851X. Personal usage as private individuals "fair dealing" is allowed. We also welcome links to material on our site. Usage by those working for organisations is allowed only if the organisation holds an appropriate licence from the relevant reprographic rights organisation (eg: Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK) with such usage being subject to the terms and conditions of that licence and to local copyright law.

About | Contact | Privacy Policy