Undercover woman soldier flown home

Undercover woman soldier flown home By Toby Harnden, Ireland Correspondent

THE woman soldier who shot an RUC officer in the chest when an undercover mission in Belfast went wrong has been flown back from Ulster but told she will not face charges.

An RUC source said the inquiry into the shooting had still to be completed but it had already been accepted that the soldier, an Army officer seconded to 14 Intelligence Company, or "14 Int", had acted with bravery and professionalism.

The inquiry is likely to conclude that the main cause of the shooting was the failure of the joint RUC, MI5 and Army Tasking Co-ordination Group to ensure that police patrols were told an undercover operation was taking place in the area.

Wearing civilian clothes and driving an unmarked car, she had been observing an IRA suspect close to Ladbrook Drive in the Ardoyne area on Jan 14. Another 14 Int member was with her but in another car.

At around 1.20am she was spotted by four policemen, also in an unmarked car, who gave chase. Suspecting she had been detected by the IRA, she increased her speed to more than 80mph and headed down the Crumlin Road to shake off her pursuers.

The RUC men had been carrying out a routine patrol to look out for loyalist terrorists who had been targeting Roman Catholics. They initially thought she was a joyrider. They turned on their two-tone siren but not their blue flashing light.

As she approached the Carlisle Circus roundabout, she lost control of the car and crashed. Dazed and afraid, she saw a dark figure approaching and shot him in the chest with her 9mm Browning pistol.

Although the shot policeman was in uniform, at least one of the other RUC officers was in plain clothes.

A spokesman for the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast said yesterday the policeman "remains seriously ill". He recently suffered internal bleeding and may never return to duty.

The woman officer was not to blame for what happened, said the RUC source. "She was an experienced operator working in a very dangerous area. It was extremely unfortunate that she jumped to the conclusion that the RUC men were terrorists.

"While her training should have ensured she did not crash the way she did, she was able to recover quickly and had the presence of mind to fire accurately at a person she thought was a threat.

"The incident was a tragedy, not just because of the serious injury to the policeman but also because the officer has had to be returned to her parent regiment in England. 14 Int are very short of women operators and, by all accounts, she was extremely good at her job."

In December 1996 Eddie Copeland, who had been named as a leading IRA member in Parliament two years earlier, was injured when a loyalist bomb exploded underneath his car outside his home in Ladbrook Drive.

14 Int, known among the security forces as "Group" and composed of nine detachments or "Dets", was formed in 1974 and is commanded by an SAS colonel. He is directly responsible to the General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland but also reports to the director of the SAS.

The identity of the unit is a closely-guarded secret and the "cover name" - currently a five-letter acronym - changes periodically.

Capt Robert Nairac, who won a posthumus George Cross after he was murdered in South Armagh in 1977, had served with 14 Int under the cover name "4 Field Survey Troop".

Members of 14 Int, drawn from all three Services, are trained at the SAS headquarters in Hereford. They operate in groups of two or three, mainly in urban areas, and often in support of the SAS. Although 14 Int operates mainly against the IRA, it is also employed to combat loyalist terrorists.

In September 1989 a woman member of 14 Int shot dead Brian Robinson, an Ulster Volunteer Force member, just after he murdered a Roman Catholic in the Ardoyne.

The Browning pistol is the most common weapon used by 14 Int and is usually carried in a covert waistband holder or placed beneath the right thigh when driving.

In a recent book, Sarah Ford, a former member of 14 Int, described the rigorous training course she undertook. Of the 120 people who started the six-month course, only eight were women. Fourteen passed, with Ford the only woman.