Brother of soldier murdered in 1972 loses legal challenge

Telford Stuart was shot dead on the outskirts of west Belfast in October 1972 while undertaking a covert operation on behalf of the Military Reaction Force (MRF).

In 2013 the then director of public prosecutions (DPP), Barra McGrory, asked the chief constable to investigate the activities of the unit following a television documentary which featured interviews with former members.

The PSNI’s Legacy Investigations Branch (LIB) examined allegations that the MRF carried out random and unjustified shootings during the Troubles.

The dead soldier’s brother, Colin Stuart, issued judicial review proceedings against the chief constable for not including his killing in the broader investigation.

His lawyers claimed it was an unlawful refusal where the circumstances surrounding the murder involved MRF actions in a compromised operation.

But a judge held that the scope of the probe was limited to shootings carried out by the undercover soldiers.

At the time of his killing Telford Stuart had been a member of an MRF unit using the cover of a laundry collection service to gather intelligence and information on republicans.

One man was later jailed for 12 years for offences connected to the shooting in the Twinbrook area.

In 2009 the now defunct Historical Enquiries Team (HET) found that the IRA carried out the murder after detecting the existence of the undercover unit.

The claim that the operation had been compromised was described as plausible, but no new lines of inquiry towards identifying those responsible for the killing were established.

Mr McGrory’s investigative request, made under Section 35(5) of the Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002, came after a BBC ‘Panorama’ programme which centred on the alleged shooting of civilians by MRF members without referring to Mr Stuart’s murder.

The court was also told that the LIB decided its probe should focus on shootings by the Army, rather than cases where soldiers had been killed.

Dismissing the legal challenge, Mr Justice Humphreys decided that the DPP’s request made by the DPP was closely connected to the subject matter of the documentary.

“The chief constable was not being asked to conduct some all-encompassing investigation into all matters connected to the MRF, but rather to investigate the activities as represented by the shootings carried out by undercover soldiers,” he said.

“The murder of Telford Stuart did not fall within the section 35(5) request.”

Outside court, a solicitor for the soldier’s brother indicated he may appeal the ruling.