Congress may investigate double agent's US stay
SUNDAY Life ( Belfast), MAY 04, 2003
By Stephen Breen

A ROW has erupted in the United States, after Sunday Life revealed last week, that UDA super spy Brian Nelson may have spent the last days of his life in Florida.

We have learned that a powerful Irish American pressure group has urged the US Congress, in Washington, to investigate how the ex-Army double agent was allowed to stay in the sunshine state.

Sunday Life was bombarded with e-mails, from across the Atlantic, following our revelations that Nelson saw out his last days on a Florida beach - thousands of miles away from Ulster's 'Killing Fields'.

The shock claim was made to us, by a spokeswoman on behalf of the former UDA intelligence officer's wife, May Epplestone.

It is understood Nelson - along with his wife and three kids - went to the States, as Sir John Stevens stepped up his inquiries into collusion, between loyalist terrorists and the security forces.

Now the Washington-based Irish National Caucus group, which specializes in Ulster's troubled peace process, has pleaded with US politicians, to provide answers on the mystery surrounding Nelson's death.

The group's president, Fr Sean McManus, told us the US Congress had "a duty" to uncover the truth.

Said Fr McManus: "If reports in last week's Sunday Life are true - Irish-Americans are demanding the US Congress launch an investigation, into how notorious Brian Nelson was allowed to relocate, and live in Florida.

"Why was a man who specialized - with the help of the British Army and RUC - in killing Catholics, allowed to relocate and settle in the United States, when there was such a strict policy of barring anyone from Northern Ireland, with a terrorist record?

"This is a question key members of Congress, involved in the Irish issue, must answer.

"This surely is an urgent question, with profound implications, because there is danger it could give the impression that the States - in harboring Nelson and giving him safe passage - was colluding with the British Government's policy of assassinating Catholics in Northern Ireland.

"The Congress has a duty to investigate, and find out the truth."

This latest revelation comes after we also revealed how the spy became right-hand man, to the UDA's terrorist mastermind, John McMichael.

We also revealed how Nelson was given the run of the UDA's east Belfast headquarters, in the 1980s.

Last updated on:  Sunday, November 14, 2004