PSNI will not pursue British Army death squad members

» Mark Moloney

“We were not there to act like an army unit; we were there to act like a terror group” – British Army MRF death squad member to BBC's Panorama

THE PSNI has said it will not pursue members of the British Army's shadowy Military Reaction Force (MRF) death squad despite its members appearing in the BBC TV Panorama programme Britain's Secret Terror Force last year and boasting about their killings in Belfast.

The MRF was a death squad made up of 40 hand-picked British Army soldiers operating from 1971 to 1973 under the command of a brigadier.

One ex-MRF soldier told Panorama:

“We were not there to act like an army unit; we were there to act like a terror group.”

The undercover British soldiers carried out dozens of drive-by shootings in Belfast, killing a number of unarmed civilians. At the time it was believed loyalists were behind the attacks. The soldiers claimed they were "taking the fight to the IRA" but most of their attacks targeted residents at barricades in nationalist areas, erected to protect their communities from marauding loyalist sectarian gangs.

Solicitor Peadar Ó Muirigh, who is representing the family of civilian Pat McVeigh, one of those gunned down by the MRF, says he has been told by the PSNI that they will take no action against the killers.

Director of Public Prosecutions Barra McGrory said he plans to meet the Historical Enquiries Team to ask what investigative steps have been taken on the issue of British Army killings.

Pat McVeigh's daughter Patricia told the Irish News:

"As a family we are totally shocked and dismayed. The three MRF men in the Panorama programme appeared to gloat about their activities at the time."

The family plans to lodge a formal complaint to the Police Ombudsman over the decision.