Secret agent murder claim evidence to be heard behind closed doors

The MoD and chief constable were granted permission to seek to present some of their defence to the claim by the mother of victim Eoin Morley at a secret hearing.

Eilish Morley is suing both over the killing of her son by the IRA in Newry, Co Down on Easter Sunday 1990.

She is also taking action against Peter Keeley, widely reported as using the pseudonym Kevin Fulton, for allegedly carrying out the killing while an agent of the Army’s Force Research Unit (FRU).

Masked men dragged the victim from his girlfriend’s house in the Derrybeg estate and shot him twice.

He had been a member of the Irish People’s Liberation Organisation (IPLO), a splinter republican paramilitary organisation.

A subsequent investigation by former Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan concluded that the RUC failed to properly investigate Morley’s killing.

However, she also found there had been no effort by police to instigate a feud between the IRA and IPLO.

Mrs Morley is suing the MoD for either allegedly permitting the murder to take place or failing to take steps to prevent it. A further hearing is now to be held in April.