THE Chairman of the Billy Wright Inquiry, Lord MacLean, has issued an order prohibiting any reporting of the evidence of Witness ZBS given yesterday at Banbridge Courthouse. According to another police witness, ZBS is a former acting head of Special Branch (who retired on November 11, 1997). The order was made under Section 19 of the 2005 Inquiries Act, which implies the reason for the prohibition may be ‘national security’. I’m not sure if this is a first for NI inquiries under the new Act. (It might be argued that previous to the Act, the evidence would never have been given in the first place, since a Public Interest Immunity certificate would have been issued beforehand.) Also yesterday, an unidentified soldier revealed how some visitors had signed in as D. Duck. He also claimed that Maze escapee Liam Averill’s getaway car was under surveillance – but the observers failed to realise that a ‘woman’ getting into the car was the IRA prisoner in disguise.
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