JUDGEMENT is expected to be handed down this week in the case of an IRA informer who is suing the Home Office for compensation.
Martin McGartland – who wrote about his life as an informer in Fifty Dead Men Walking – is taking an action in the London High court in a test case surrounding controversial new secrecy rules.
Significantly the case has been subjected to new legal rulings, which prevents claimants and the public from knowing exactly what is being alleged.
McGartland’s case has already been heard over two days in the court.
The hearing is also being heard in secret after the Home Secretary Theresa May applied to have the case heard behind closed doors – known as a closed material procedure (CMP).
Mr McGartland is suing the Home Office for compensation after claims MI5 withdrew medical support and benefits payments.
He has written two books about his life undercover, Fifty Dead Men Walking – so named after the estimated number of lives he is said to have saved during his time as an IRA mole – and Dead Man Running. The former was turned into a 2008 film.
He fell under suspicion by the IRA and was “arrested” by republicans in 1991 and interrogated for eight hours, finally escaping by jumping head first through a third-floor window. He later survived an attempt on his life in Gateshead in 1999.
