New delay to spy's inquest expected

4 February 2010
The Irish News
Barry McCaffrey

An inquest into the death of murdered MI5 agent Denis Donaldson is expected to be adjourned today as gardai are due to request a fourth postponement. The 56-year-old was shot dead by the Real IRA in April 2006 at an isolated cottage at Doochary, Co Donegal, four months after publicly admitting that he had been a British spy inside Sinn Fein for more than 20 years. Donaldson, who had previously been implicated in an IRA spy ring at Stormont, died after being hit by two shotgun blasts as he tried to flee from the early-morning attack.

In November 2007 a preliminary hearing into his death was adjourned after gardai told the coroner that they were considering criminal proceedings. At that time lawyers for the Donaldsons said the family's confidence in the Garda investigation had been "severely undermined" by the lack of progress in the case.

The family later lodged official complaints against gardai over concerns that Donaldson had not been properly warned that his life was under threat in the Republic and over the murder investigation team's refusal to state whether his cottage had been under electronic surveillance at the time of the shooting.

The inquest was postponed for a second time in May 2008.

It was adjourned for a third time in February 2009 after it was revealed that gardai were following a "new line of inquiry".

At that time a solicitor for the Donaldson family said they would not object to the adjournment but warned that unless the case had progressed by the next hearing they would seek a date for completion.

It later emerged that Letterkenny man Liam McGinley had been taken into protective custody after having given gardai information about the murder.

McGinley is understood to have identified the killers to detectives. He is also understood to have passed on information which led to the recovery of a sledgehammer which the killers had used to break down the door of the cottage during the attack.

McGinley is understood to have agreed to cooperate with garda after having been abducted and shot by the Real IRA in November 2007.

Lawyers for the Donaldson family are understood to have expressed serious concerns that despite McGinley having been in protective custody for more than two years, no-one has ever been arrested for the murder.

Yesterday a Garda spokesman refused to comment on the state of the murder investigation other than to say it was "ongoing".