Robert Andrew

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Northern Ireland.jpg This article is part of SpinWatch's Northern Ireland Portal.

Sir Robert Andrew is a former Permanent Secretary at the Northern Ireland Office.

Sir Robert was Private Secretary at the Ministry of Defence from 1971-73.[1]

Lobster magazine described him as 'Britain's top spook in Northern Ireland in 1984.[2]

Shoot-to-kill/Stalker Affair

Sir Robert was head of the NIO at the time of the Stalker Affair.

He says: "There was an argument for saying that prosecutions should have been brought to clear the air and to demonstrate that the government was not covering up illegal activities. On the other hand, there was a fear that if police officers, and even more so, officers from the security service, were put in the dock and had to answer questions on oath, intelligence-gathering methods and the identity of individuals would have become known and prejudiced [their] effectiveness".
Sir Robert says his then political master, Tom King, judged that a prosecution was "undesirable". [3]

References

  1. Brits, Part 1, The Secret War, transcript, BBC News, accessed 10 April 2008.
  2. Spooks UK, Lobster Magazine, August 1984.
  3. Shoot-to-kill evidence destroyed, by Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian, 23 May 2000.