Title: Supergrasses : a study in anti-terrorist law enforcement in Northern Ireland /
Authors: Greer, Steven, 1956-
Publisher: Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press,
Year: 1995
Subjects: Evidence, Criminal Northern Ireland.; Informers Legal status, laws, etc. Northern Ireland.; Criminal investigation Northern Ireland.; Terrorism Northern Ireland
Abstract: This book is about the highly controversial use of supergrasses from loyalist and republican paramilitary organizations in Northern Ireland during the 1980s. 'Supergrasses' are informers or suspects prepared to testify in court against their alleged ex-confederates in return for rewards such as immunity from prosecution, lenient sentences, and new identities. The trials in Northern Ireland in which they featured were some of the largest ever conducted in the United Kingdom. In this thought-provoking study, Steven Greer analyses these proceedings and traces their origins in the murky world of counter-terrorism and intelligence-gathering. The case for stronger legal safeguards receives particularly strong support from the extensive comparisons with similar processes in other countries.
Contents: Newspaper Sources for the Grimley, Gilmour, and Allen Trial Summaries -- 1. Informers, Agents Provocateurs, and Supergrasses. Insiders and Outsiders. The Criminal Informer. The Political Informer -- 2. The Origins of the Supergrass System: 1969-1982. The Construction of the Military Intelligence System: 1969-1975. The Institutionalization of the Diplock Process: 1972-1975. Police Primacy and the Refinement of Intelligence-Gathering: 1975-1979. The Reorganization of Intelligence-Gathering: 1979-1980. Inauspicious Beginnings: 1980-1982 -- 3. Ascendancy: January-October 1983. The Bennett Case: R. v. Graham and others. The Black Case: R. v. Donnelly and others. The McGrady Case: R. v. Gibney and others -- 4. Under a Cloud: November and December 1983. The Grimley Case: R. v. Connolly and others. The Morgan Case: R. v. Davison and others -- 5. The Public Controversy: 1983-1984. The Official View. The Conspiracy Theory. The Civil Liberties Perspective -- 6. Decline: 1984.