A former BBC journalist who exposed the involvement of MI5 in concealing evidence of abuse at the Kincora boys’ home in Northern Ireland was repeatedly placed under electronic surveillance by the police and intelligence services, it is claimed.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) is investigating allegations that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and MI5 unlawfully spied on the phone communications of Chris Moore, a former reporter with the BBC’s Spotlight programme, who has reported about police collusion with terrorist organisations.
Computer Weekly has learned that the PSNI engaged in sustained surveillance of BBC journalists in Northern Ireland from at least 2006 to 2022 by using powers under Section 22 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to obtain communications data from target phones.
Surveillance against BBC journalists allegedly took place during multiple PSNI operations, codenamed Operation Oxbow in 2009, Operation Settat in 2011, Operation Basanti in 2014 and Operation Grimmicaeie in 2022.
PSNI maintained secret database
During one police operation, the PSNI maintained a secret database containing the contact details of 34 BBC journalists in Northern Ireland, which was allegedly used to attempt to identify confidential sources that provided information to the BBC.
Chris Moore, who wrote ‘Kincora: Britain’s Shame’, which exposes the involvement of the security service MI5 in concealing evidence of abuse at the boys’ home to protect establishment figures in the 1960s and 1970s, believes he was subject to electronic surveillance for at least 16 years
Moore, who is known for his book Kincora: Britain’s Shame, which exposes the involvement of the security service MI5 in concealing evidence of abuse at the Kincora boys’ home (pictured being demolished above) to protect establishment figures in the 1960s and 1970s, believes he was subject to electronic surveillance for at least 16 years.
The investigative journalist, who worked on investigations exposing how law enforcement knowingly paid informers involved in repeated multiple murders and returned guns to an IRA informant that were later used to murder police, has received multiple warnings over the years that he had been placed under surveillance to identify his informants.
Police spied on BBC Spotlight journalists
Moore filed a legal complaint after the BBC’s Spotlight programme submitted the names of 16 journalists who may have been subject to surveillance to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. The IPT requested the dates of birth of three of the BBC journalists – Moore, Vincent Kearney and another BBC journalist – believed to have been subject to monitoring.
Computer Weekly reported in May 2024 that the BBC had instructed lawyers after it emerged that the PSNI had spied on former BBC journalist Kearney during his work on a 2011 Spotlight documentary investigating the independence of the police watchdog in Northern Ireland.
Moore says he received warnings from police sources that he had been placed under surveillance between 1991 and 2001, while investigating allegations that Special Branch had withheld evidence from detectives investigating terrorist crimes, including murder, which allowed killers to escape and “subverted the course of justice”.
In 2015 and 2016, working for BBC’s Spotlight, Moore took security precautions after receiving further warnings that he may have been placed under surveillance by Special Branch and MI5 as part of a further operation to identify his confidential sources.
The BBC reporter had discovered that two Special Branch handlers at the Royal Ulster Constabulary had received two guns from an IRA informer, sent them for testing on a police firing range, and had returned them to the IRA without taking steps to disable them.
A Special Branch officer who test-fired the guns met Moore at his home and provided documentary evidence of the incident. The officer, who is no longer alive, told Moore that he “was disgusted” that the guns were returned intact and later used to murder two police officers.
Moore received another warning that he was under surveillance to identify his sources while investigating two members of the Mt Vernon Ulster Volunteer Force who had committed over 20 murders while in the pay of the British State.
Given what I now know, it is inconceivable that my phone connection was not subject to surveillance Chris Moore, former BBC journalist
“Given what I now know, it is inconceivable that my phone connection was not subject to surveillance,” said Moore.
‘MI5 agent’ repeatedly phoned Moore
The tribunal is also investigating whether a man who identified himself as “Mike”, and repeatedly called Moore while the journalist was investigating the alleged cover-up of sexual abuse at the Kincora boys’ home, was an undercover MI5 agent.
According to Moore, Mike made many unsolicited phone calls to Moore and attempted to engage him in conversations about how the Metropolitan Police had protected political paedophiles for years.
The man identified the names of policemen and apartments, such as Dolphin Square in London, where the abuse allegedly took place.
“I never did anything but listen to this individual. Once I answered the phone, he would talk non-stop, allowing me to listen but seldom speak,” said Moore.
The journalist said that calls from Mike were “judicious” in their timing and often followed significant discussions Moore had had with people on the phone or face to face.
Moore said he persuaded Mike to share his mobile phone number, but the phone was either unavailable or never answered when Moore tried to call.
“The nature of the calls is that they were made to me by Mike at interesting times in my working life, and I am now suspicious and 90% convinced that this number belongs to the secret service, MI5,” said Moore.
Spying on BBC journalists raises ‘serious questions’
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal’s investigation comes as independent barrister Angus McCullough completes a review commissioned by PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher following allegations that the PSNI undertook unlawful surveillance of lawyers, journalists and non-governmental organisations.
Computer Weekly reported in January that more than 40 journalists – including Computer Weekly – and lawyers had submitted evidence to the review, which is looking into allegations that the PSNI collected phone data, breaching journalists’ confidential sources and legal privilege between lawyers and clients.
That a national broadcaster and its journalists were subject to a sustained covert monitoring operation – rooted in the misuse of investigatory powers – is alarming in any democratic society Chris Moore, former BBC journalist
In a letter to McCullough, Moore wrote that PSNI’s spying operation against BBC journalists raised serious questions about the rule of law in Northern Ireland.
“That a national broadcaster and its journalists were subject to a sustained covert monitoring operation – rooted in the misuse of investigatory powers – is alarming in any democratic society,” he said.
“That it was denied or downplayed at the highest levels of policing leadership raises more serious concerns about accountability, transparency and the rule of law in Northern Ireland.”
Moore said there was a clear implication that the PSNI’s surveillance of journalists was not focused on identifying corrupt police officers, as has previously been suggested, but was aimed “primarily at identifying journalists and their confidential sources”.
“The evidence points to a culture in which journalists were treated as suspects under suspicion, rather than acting in the public interest,” he wrote.
This was in direct contradiction to a statement made by the chief constable at the Northern Ireland Policing Board in June 2024, Moore claims.
“In those public remarks, Mr Boutcher gave firm assurances that the PSNI had not engaged in unlawful surveillance of journalists and the force respected journalistic freedoms. The material now before the IPT demonstrates that these assurances were at best seriously misleading, and at worst, knowingly false.”
IPT finding sparks PSNI review
The PSNI commissioned the McCullough Review after the Investigatory Powers Tribunal found that the PSNI and the Metropolitan Police had unlawfully carried out surveillance operations against journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney after they produced a documentary exposing police collusion with the Ulster Volunteer Force.
The IPT found in December that the PSNI and the Metropolitan Police had unlawfully spied on the two journalists’ phone communications and suspected confidential sources.
The PSNI monitored the journalists after they released a documentary exposing police collusion with a paramilitary group that murdered six innocent Catholics watching a football match in Loughinisland in 1994.
The PSNI arrested Birney and McCaffrey in 2018 as part of a failed “sting” operation to identify their confidential sources by placing a member of staff at the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland under surveillance in the hope that the two journalists would contact the individual after they were released.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal found that the former PSNI chief constable’s decision to authorise the directed surveillance operation against the suspect was “unlawful at common law” and that it violated the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998.
McCullough cannot consider cases reported to IPT
McCullough has told Moore and other journalists that, under the terms of reference of his review, he is unable to consider allegations of surveillance that are also being considered by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. McCullough said he was following the cases and had access to the material.
Investigative journalist Dónal MacIntyre told Computer Weekly that he had withdrawn a complaint to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal after being told by McCullough that he was unable to review his case while it was under consideration by the IPT.
“The IPT is a process that takes years – four and five years is not abnormal – so by pulling out, I can at least get a timely and early answer to my concerns from the McCullough review. And I’m confident that his review will be robust and, for better or worse, bring all the key issues to the fore. Thereafter, I may resubmit if there is a basis for it,” he told Computer Weekly.
Computer Weekly reported in April that MacIntyre, one of the most prominent investigative journalists in Britain, had learned he had been placed under police surveillance while investigating the mysterious death of a Belfast teenager in August 2023.
MacIntyre’s suspicions were first raised when he arrived at Heathrow Airport after a three-day trip to Ireland in October 2024 to find his car had been broken into. Sensitive files left on a seat had been scattered all over the car floor, while cash, jewellery and technology were left undisturbed.
