GARDAI have been urged to re-open the notorious murder of a Co Louth farmer by the IRA in 1991, following evidence which has emerged into the public domain.
An ex-soldier who infiltrated the IRA during the Troubles claimed at the Smithwick Tribunal that he took part in an abduction of Tom Oliver.
Kevin Fulton – also known as Peter Keeley – told the Smithwick Tribunal earlier this month that this abduction happened before a second abduction on July 18, 1991 in which Mr Oliver was murdered. His body was left close to Belleeks in south Armagh.
Mr Fulton said he had been working at Disneyland in Paris when the second abduction, resulting in the murder, took place.
The IRA claimed Mr Oliver had been passing information to the gardai, but his family have rejected these allegations.
Mr Fulton named IRA members involved in the first abduction and also confirmed to Judge Smithwick the names of six other IRA members living around the border from a cipher list compiled by the tribunal’s lawyers.
Now DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson – who himself gave evidence to the tribunal this month – has called for the Garda to re-open the murder inquiry into Mr Oliver and question the men named by Mr Fulton.
And he has said he plans to raise the matter with the Republic’s Fine Gael government in the coming weeks.
“Kevin Fulton provided clear detail about who was involved in this incident when Mr Oliver was first abducted and this information should provide detectives with a base to re-launch a new murder investigation,” he said.
“Kevin Fulton has confirmed details about the Oliver murder and also confirmed the activities of those referred to by numbers on the cipher list.
“They should all be questioned by the Garda with a view to bringing prosecutions against them for IRA activities in the Republic,”
A Garda spokesman told the News Letter yesterday that it “does not comment on third party calls”.
The Smithwick Tribunal is probing claims that gardai colluded with the IRA in the murder of the two most senior RUC officers to be killed in the Troubles.
Chief supt Harry Breen and supt Bob Buchanan died in an IRA ambush minutes after leaving a meeting at Dundalk garda station.
In 2000, Mr Donaldson named retired detective sergeant Owen Corrigan in the House of Commons as a rogue garda. Giving evidence to the tribunal earlier this month, he defended his actions.
Mr Corrigan has consistently denied all allegations that he co-operated with the IRA, describing the accusation as a “monstrous lie” and has successfully defended his good name in libel proceedings against a newspaper.
The tribunal started in 2005, chaired by Judge Peter Smithwick. Public hearings have been ongoing since last June. They are expected to resume later this month.
The final report from the tribunal is expected to be published at the end of May, 2012.