Family of murdered man takes justice fight to MI5 HQ
State agents implicated in 1997 killing that still awaits Article 2 investigation
Relatives of Sean Brown protest at Thames House on Monday (Pat Finucane Centre).
MI5’s Thames House headquarters was the focus of a protest on Monday by the family of Sean Brown, an Irishman murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in 1997.1 There have long been suspicions that state agents were among the killers.
Brown was abducted on 12 May 1997 while locking up the grounds of Bellaghy Gaelic Athletic Club in County Derry. His body was found 10 miles away. He had been shot six times.2
In 2004, Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan found that the investigation was ‘incomplete and inadequate’ but that there was no evidence of police collusion in the murder.3
An inquest into the case did not begin hearings until 26 years after Brown’s death, but when it did, it changed the picture dramatically. On 27 February 2024, counsel to the coroner told the court that ‘intelligence material indicates that at the time of the death of Sean Brown a number of individuals linked through intelligence to the murder were agents of the state. Intelligence is not evidence but issues relating to the agents of the state and their handling would inevitably fall to be investigated in the inquest if it were possible for the coroner to do so.’4
Information disclosed to the inquest included details of an MI5 surveillance operation targeting senior loyalists in Mid-Ulster at the time of the killing.5
The coroner subsequently halted the inquest after the Ministry of Defence, MI5 and the Police Service of Northern Ireland all applied to withhold evidence on the grounds of public interest immunity.
In his ruling, he said: ‘It is my intention to write to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland requesting that a public inquiry be established into the death of Sean Brown. Such an inquiry would allow evidence to be heard in closed session if required. Although a closed hearing is not in itself desirable, the national security issues in play in this case mean that the sensitive material which has had to be excluded in this inquest could only be examined and tested in a closed hearing’6
The call for a public inquiry was backed by the former Ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan, who said:
Had I had access to the information which was clearly available, I would have had a different report. I could only report on the evidence I had. You can have suspicions but you can't report them as fact without evidence. I certainly would have questioned what went on. I'm absolutely clear that there are cases where I didn't get all the evidence despite trying.7
Rather than concede a public inquiry, however, Both Conservative and Labour Governments have chosen to ask the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (“ICRIR”) to review the death. The current Government has acknowledged that the ICRIR’s procedures are not consistent with the protections for the right to life in Article 2 of the Human Rights Act, but insists that ICRIR will be reformed ‘when parliamentary time allows.’
That was not enough for the High Court in Belfast, which ordered a public inquiry in December.8 The Government has since appealed the ruling.9
Having taken almost three decades to acknowledge that its own intelligence implicated state agents in the killing, it seems Whitehall is still determined to kick the can further down the road.
Connla Young, Sean Brown family hold protest outside MI5 HQ, Irish News, 30 June 2025.
Sean Brown, The Pat Finucane Centre, accessed 1 July 2024.
Significant failures in investigation of 1997 Sean Brown murder, Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, 19 January 2004.
COURT ORDERS SECRETARY OF STATE TO HOLD PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO THE DEATH OF SEAN BROWN, Judicial Communications Office, JudiciaryNI, 17 December 2024.
Connla Young, MI5 says it has no intelligence on Sean Brown murder despite spy operation, Irish News, 4 March 2024.
Mr Justice McKinney, IN THE MATTER OF AN INQUEST TOUCHING THE DEATH OF SEAN BROWN, OPEN RULING IN THE CLAIM FOR PUBLIC INTEREST IMMUNITY, JudiciaryNI, 4 March 2024.
Eimear McGovern, Sean Brown murder: Nuala O’Loan supports family’s call for inquiry, Belfast Telegraph, 28 February 2024.
COURT ORDERS SECRETARY OF STATE TO HOLD PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO THE DEATH OF SEAN BROWN, Judicial Communications Office, JudiciaryNI, 17 December 2024.
Connla Young, British government ‘contemptible’ as it confirms no public inquiry for Sean Brown, Irish News, 10 June 2025.
As the psychopathic twins running the Western Empire crime operation the "intelligence" operations in the UK and US are the worst of the criminal lot. Here in the US, the CIA was the primary mover of the JFK assassination. On that day there was a coup and the US government has grown increasing criminal ever since with our never-ending wars, torture and detention camps, coups and a foreign policy that has killed millions and continues to grind away in in the Gaza genocide.
For those unfamiliar with the CIA's criminal campaign against the American people, look into Operation Chaos to see just how venal and villainous the agency can be against Americans and then ponder how absolutely evil they would be toward people in other nations. Tom O'Neil's book -- 'Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties' -- reveals one of the more grotesque examples.
And all the clap trap BS about the west bringing "democracy" and "freedom" and 'fighting for human rights" is exposed as the lie it always was as the US collapses into brutal fascism on behalf of corporate totalitarianism and Israeli snipers kill Palestinian children every day. The Gaza genocide has exposed the empire for what it really is and always has been. I hope there is an inquiry into the death or Mr. Brown and the truth comes out and some measure of justice can occur. But, as we see all too often in the crumbling Western Empire, the chance is probably scant.
Thanks for writing about this case. Blessings to his family and those fighting for the truth.
To everyone throughout the west: Resist. Persist. Don't be complicit!