MI5 admits it ‘unlawfully’ obtained data from ex-BBC journalist Vincent Kearney

The "unprecedented" concessions relating to Vincent Kearney came in a letter to the BBC and Mr Kearney ahead of an Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) hearing in London.

The tribunal has been examining claims that investigative reporters in Northern Ireland were subjected to unlawful covert intelligence by the police.

Mr Kearney brought legal action after reports that documents in the case of documentary makers Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney had suggested that public bodies, including police forces, had spied on Mr Kearney.

These forces included the Metropolitan Police, the PSNI and Durham Constabulary. The claims relate to Mr Kearney, who is the northern editor at RTE, and his work on a 2011 Spotlight documentary about the independence of the Police Ombudsman's office.

Jude Bunting KC, representing Mr Kearney and the BBC, told a hearing yesterday: "The MI5 now confirms publicly that in 2006 and 2009 MI5 obtained communications data in relation to Vincent Kearney."

He added that the security service "accepted" it had breached Mr Kearney's Article 8 and Article 10 rights of the European Convention of Human Rights.

Mr Bunting continued: "This appears to be the first time in any tribunal proceedings in which MI5 publicly accept interference with a journalist's communications data, and also publicly accept that they acted unlawfully in doing so."

He said the concession that the organisation twice accessed Mr Kearney's data represented "serious and sustained illegality on the part of MI5".

Mr Bunting told the tribunal that the police forces involved had also made admissions.

In written submissions, he said the MPS accepted it twice obtained Mr Kearney's communications data in 2012, stored it, and provided some of it to Durham Constabulary in 2018.

He continued that the PSNI "concedes illegality" for obtaining, storing and using Mr Kearney's communications data.

The tribunal was told that this included authorisations relating to the investigation into the murder of Pc Stephen Carroll in 2009, and authorisations arising from Operation Erewhon in 2012, when the MPS obtained material in an investigation into alleged leaking in the Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI)

Mr Bunting said Durham Constabulary conceded that its officers sought, obtained, reviewed and used material from the MPS, arguing that it did so for and on behalf of the PSNI.

After the hearing, a BBC spokesperson said: "MI5's admission that it illegally obtained communications data of a BBC journalist is a matter of grave concern. It raises serious and important questions that we will continue to pursue."

Patrick Corrigan , Amnesty International's Northern Ireland director, said: "The disclosure that MI5 has twice trampled human rights law by unlawfully prying into the phone records of a journalist in Northern Ireland is profoundly alarming.

"A journalist's right to protect their sources is not a luxury, it is the bedrock of a free and fearless press.

"This is not just about one journalist, it is about the public's right to know the truth."

He added: "The revelation that MI5 itself has been breaking the law to rifle through journalists' communications should chill anyone who cares about freedom of the press in the UK.

"What is now urgently required is full transparency, genuine accountability and an end to this pattern of unlawful intrusion."

Mr Kearney complained to the IPT after a separate claim was brought to the tribunal by Mr McCaffrey and Mr Birney.