Detective cleared of leaking tapes to Sunday Times

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Detective cleared of leaking tapes to Sunday Times
Jon Ungoed-Thomas



A FORMER Special Branch officer has been cleared of breaching the Official Secrets Act by leaking classified documents to a Sunday Times journalist.

Peter Adamson, 50, a retired detective, was found not guilty last Friday after a court in Ballymena, Co Antrim, was told the crown would offer no evidence against him because the prosecution was not considered in the public interest.


The documents allegedly leaked to Liam Clarke, Northern Ireland editor of The Sunday Times, and Kathryn Johnston, his wife, were transcripts of tapped phone conversations recorded by MI5 and Special Branch at the home of Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein’s chief negotiator from 1998 to 2001.

The transcripts are of conversations between McGuinness; Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president; Jonathan Powell, chief of staff to the prime minister; and the late Mo Mowlam, then Northern Ireland secretary.

In them, Mowlam addresses McGuinness as “babe” and outlines her differences with Tony Blair while Powell describes unionist MPs as “asses”. Mowlam authorised the tap.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1796462,00.html