User:One Night In Hackney/Workshop

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Brian Nelson - FRU agent and UDA Chief of Intelligence.
Brian Nelson - FRU agent and UDA Chief of Intelligence.

Brian Nelson (30 September 1947 – 11 April 2003[1]) was a British soldier, military intelligence agent and Loyalist paramilitary.

Contents

[edit] Background

Nelson was born in the Shankill Road, Belfast district of Belfast, and was one of six children. He left school at the age of fifteen and started a joinery apprenticeship at Harland and Wolff shipyard, where his father worked. Nelson left the shipyard just sixteen months into his four year apprenticeship, and subsequently joined the British Army as a member of the Royal Highland Regiment. Nelson left the army in 1969, after serving for over four years.[2]

[edit] Paramilitary activity

Nelson became an avid follower of Ian Paisley, and set up and ran his own battalion of Paisley's Ulster Protestant Volunteers (UPV). Eighteen months later Nelson and many other UPV members joined the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) which was attempting to draw together Loyalist vigilante groups.[2] On 25 March 1973 Nelson and two other men were arrested and charged with conspiracy to murder and several other offences, relating to the kidnapping of a Catholic man. Nelson agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges of intimidation, possession with intent and actual bodily harm, and in return the conspiracy charge was dropped. On 18 February 1974 Nelson was sentenced to seven years imprisonment. In late 1977 he was released from prison, and started work as a carpet fitter. According to Loyalist sources he used his work to carry out surveillance work, collating information for the UDA.[3]

[edit] British agent

In 1979 Nelson was recruited to work as an agent for the Force Research Unit (FRU), using the codename agent 6137. In 1981 and 1982 he was working in Germany, monitoring the Irish community for both the British Army and MI6. In late 1982 Nelson returned to Northern Ireland on the orders of the FRU, and re-established his position within the UDA. Over a two year period Nelson provided information to the FRU that compromised many UDA attacks, including the attempted murder of Gerry Adams in March 1984. On 25 October 1985 Nelson left Northern Ireland and resumed his work in Germany, remaining there until December 1986.[4]

Nelson was appointed to the position of chief of UFF intelligence in April 1987 by John McMichael.[5] In this role Nelson was responsible for supplying information on targets to UDA/UFF gunmen, often using files passed to him by his FRU handlers. Between 1986 and 1989 Nelson played an active role in 15 murders, 14 attempted murders and 62 other murder conspiracies, including the murder of Pat Finucane and the attempted murder of Alex Maskey.[6]

On 14 September 1989 an inquiry into allegations of collusion between Loyalist paramilitaries and British security forces was launched, headed by the Deputy Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire Police, John Stevens.[7] The Stevens Inquiry team attempted to arrest Nelson on 11 January 1990, but Nelson had been tipped off by his FRU handlers and moved to England.[8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Rosie Cowan (4 September 2003). N Ireland agent confirmed dead. The Guardian. Retrieved on March 7, 2007.
  2. ^ a b Ingram, Martin (2004). Stakeknife: Britain's Secret Agents in Ireland. O'Brien Press, pp. 161-164. ISBN 0-86278-843-9. 
  3. ^ Ingram, pp. 168-173
  4. ^ Ingram, pp. 174-181
  5. ^ Dillon, Martin (2004). The Trigger Men. Mainstream Publishing, p. 206. ISBN 978-184018-902-5. 
  6. ^ Ingram, pp. 182-185
  7. ^ Taylor, Peter (2001). Brits. Bloomsbury Publishing, p. 293. ISBN 0-7475-5806-X. 
  8. ^ Ingram, p. 187
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