O'Loan to Probe Claims That 13-Year-Old Was an Informer
national |
miscellaneous |
news report 
Wednesday November 06, 2002 16:06
by Danielle Ni Dhighe - Irish Republican Socialist Movement
danielle at irsm dot org
O'Loan to Probe Claims That 13-Year-Old Was an Informer
Irish News
5 November 2002
O'Loan to Probe Claims That 13-Year-Old Was an Informer
By Barry McCaffrey
Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan is to investigate claims that a 13-year-
old Belfast schoolboy was recruited as a police informer.
The 13-year-old, who was too frightened to be named, says he was
approached by a plain clothed policeman while being questioned in
Oldpark police station on suspicion of car theft earlier this year.
He claims the officer told him charges against him would be dropped
if he agreed to work as an informer.
"I was given a number and told to ask for Johnny if I had any
information," the teenager said.
The teenager's double life is understood to have been exposed after an
INLA arms dump was uncovered in Ardoyne and the paramilitary group
suspected the 13-year-old.
It is understood the paramilitary group then asked Holy Cross rector
Fr Aidan Troy to intervene. Fr Troy said: "I spoke to the young lad
and his mother independently to assure myself that what was being
alleged was true. I am sorry to say that this story appears to be
authentic.
"This is a 13 year-old child with special needs whose very life was
being put in danger by what he was being asked to do. My concern is
solely for the rights of this child, nothing to do with politics."
This is the second allegation of police using teenage informers which
Mrs O'Loan has been asked to investigate.
In April a 19-year-old Ardoyne teenager claimed that he had been
forced to work as a police informer from the age of 14.
A police spokeswoman said it would be inappropriate to comment on a
case which was to be investigated by the ombudsman.
Comments (11 of 11)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11It's best not to be just copying articles from newspapers, that's not what this site is for. Write a summary if you think the story is significant, or add the link as a comment to the story about this issue that's already on the newswire if it's just for information. By copying an article from a commercial newspaper that's already available on the Web you are demoting a story written by an Indymedia contributor that's totally original, unavailable anywhere else on the Web.
Please just provide links Daithi is right this is removing original news from the top of the wire
Without a link articles like this may be removed!
The cohercion and intimidation at the heart of succesive Irish generations.
How many childrenīs lives and innocence have been taken by forces of the State or the reactive forces unleashed in communities.
All over the world children are being used as informers and soldiers. This issue could prove an Irish link to wider discussion of the role played by those who use children in conflict.
only a few days ago daithi was saying how rarely imc do this.
yet again however it is an article which shows the ruc/psni in a bad light, which faces the wrath of the imc thought police.
keep up your non partisan work lads.
Pat I'm not going to delete this, all I can do is make a suggestion.
The editorial policy does not cover reposted articles. We always encourage people to be original but short of please, pretty please there's nothing more that we do.
And if you check you'll see that I put the same comment on an article from the Guardian about Miss World.
How, dare I ask, is this showing a bias against anyone?
And about "two-faced", Pat I'm really getting a little bored with this. Myself and other volunteers are trying our best to do a good job here and you're lobbing generalisations at us left right and centre. I've never even met you and hold no animosity towards you so I really don't understand the problem...please, feel free to disagree with anything I do and you'll get an overly long and roundabout reply, but I will always engage with you and I want you to quit the name-calling, it's unfair towards people who are doing this job in their spare time and doing their best to be fair.
Daithi disagrees with Pat.
Therefore, Daithi must be a west Brit.
Therefore, he is not entitled to call himself Daithi. As a loyal servant of the Queen his name must 'really' be David.
It all makes perfect sense.
dont use the term west brit. blisset has pointed out reasons why its not an appropriate term of abuse & i agreed with him.
i never thought daithi was a w... b... (but there are such in imc)
i had some queries about balance tho
i shouldn't have called him david. it was a silly jibe. sorry daithi
i dont think you are a w... b... either ray. you just became power drunk from your role in imc.
you also cant accept people people disagreeing with you. i would point to the "zionazi" & icp incidents. on several occasions i suggested we agree to disagree , but you wouldn't.
No problem Pat. Have been called worse...
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