Authors: David Lowe
‘The bastard! If he fucking is, he could be behind the attempt kidnapping of Siobhan. I’ll kill the bastard now. This really is getting personal.’
Grabbing David’s arm, Debbie began to shepherd him out of the office and said, ‘That’s why you’re going to join Gary’s team right now and watch Murphy. I assume George will be arriving in Chester shortly?’
‘Yes, he’s on his way over, he was about to leave Manchester when he called earlier. So he’ll be here shortly.’
‘Leave McCullagh to me and George. He was goading you so you’d hit him. If you did, he would have had you arrested. That would have resulted in you being out of the way making it easier for the outstanding Real IRA operatives to do what they have to do, and I think what they’re targeting is connected with Tuesday’s Royal visit.’
‘And he’s been organising the preparations for the visit,’ David said as he began to leave the office.
‘Precisely, what better a role to have if you’re working with the IRA and make it easier for them to target the visit. Now disappear off to Murphy’s. He’ll know what’s happened by now and any movement he makes from now on could be significant in bringing out the two outstanding operatives we know about from their cover, as well as seeing if we can tie McCullagh in with Murphy.’
In an interview room at the custody suite in St. Anne Street police station, with DS Andy Curtis from Merseyside’s ISB, Steve was interviewing Michael Pickup. They thought he would be the easiest to get talking, especially as he had shown fear when Debbie arrested them. But things were not going to plan. To every question Steve or Andy put to Pickup, he continually gave the mantra he was under Murphy’s orders to let O’Byrne and McElvaney lodge with him adding he had no knowledge of any connection between the two men and the Real IRA. The officers could not make out whether Pickup kept up with this line under instruction from his solicitor, Mister Harris, who was also present at the interview, or, if he was acting under instruction from Murphy as what to say should he ever get picked up by the police.
‘I’m telling you Mister Adams, I’ve got nothing to do with terrorism. I was asked by my boss, Declan Murphy to put up the two lads at my flat in Ullet Road. That’s the only way I got to know them. I had no idea they were terrorists. When I asked them what they were doing in Liverpool, they said they were Irish brickies working on a job for Declan Murphy. How many times have I got to tell you this?’ Pickup said confidently sitting back in his seat, arms folded, grinning at the officers.
Mister Harris intervened saying, ‘Officer, my client has answered all of your questions and has repeatedly told you he knows nothing of any terrorist plots by the Real IRA. As it appears that you have little, if any evidence against my client relating to his involvement in acts of terrorism, I suggest you terminate this interview and either charge or release my client.’
Steve ignored the solicitor. He looked at Pickup and said, ‘OK, let’s move on to the events at Diamonds Club and your arrest. I’ve given you a chance to talk to us freely, now I’ll start producing the evidence and let’s see what you have to say about it. I want you and your solicitor to look at this recording taken from CCTV in the entrance hall of Diamonds in the early hours of this morning. Watch carefully, as this will take the smug grin off your face.’
Andy Curtis pressed the play button on a portable television and DVD player. Being a club that attracted celebrities and the wealthy in Liverpool society, a high quality CCTV system had been installed that gave a clear picture along with audio recording. All four watched intently as they saw Siobhan and O’Byrne walking towards the door followed by Debbie. As the events unfolded, Pickup began to slump in his chair, especially at the point where he urinated in his trousers and began to tell Debbie they were going to take Siobhan into his car.
As Andy Curtis pressed the stop button, Steve turned to Pickup and said, ‘What have you to say about that?’
‘If I tell you what I know, can we make some sort of deal?’ Pickup asked, adding, ‘Look I’m no terrorist. I’ve got previous, but that’s only for thefts and the like, not terrorism. No fucking way am I into that shit.’
‘Mister Harris will confirm this, I’m in no position to make any deals with you,’ Steve said.
Pickup leaned over the table towards Steve and said, ‘I owe them fuck all. Answer me this, is Declan Murphy one of these terrorists like Rory and Danny?”
‘I’m not in a position to tell you at the moment,’ Steve said glancing over to Andy Curtis, who was shaking his head indicating to Steve he should not divulge what they knew about Murphy to Pickup at this stage of the interview.
‘He must be,’ and pointing to Andy Curtis said, ‘He’s shaking his head to tell you not to tell me. If you’re straight with me, I’ll be straight with you. I’ll put it another way, if I tell you what I know, can you protect me?’
‘That depends on what you have to tell me. What do you know?’ Andy asked Pickup.
Before Pickup could answer, the solicitor spoke up, saying, ‘Michael, you don’t have to answer that. My advice is to wait and see all the evidence these officers have against you before you decide to say anything.’
Pickup looked at the solicitor and said, ‘Mister Harris, I know you’re only doing your job,’ then looking at the two officers said, ‘I’m in serious shit if you charge me with terrorist offences aren’t I?’
‘That’s if you’re charged with terrorist related offences,’ Steve replied, ‘and your brief is quite right, you don’t have to answer that question. If you’re charged, say with attempted kidnap, and there’s no evidence to show that in your part in the commission of the offence you had no idea there was a terrorist connection, that may go in your favour. If you are kept in custody, we can ask that you are kept on rule forty-three, that means you get protection in prison.’
‘What! I’d have to be on the same wing as the nonce’s and other perverts and grasses. That’s fucking worse. I know you’ll have checked up on me and seen I’ve done bird already, so I know what it’s like for those on rule forty-three. The other prisoners still get to them. You’ll have to do better than that.’
‘This is hypothetical,’ Andy Curtis said, ‘we don’t know what you’re going to tell us that may incriminate you further than we already know. I suppose we could ask the Crown Prosecution Service to put you as a category A prisoner and request that you remain in solitary. How does that sound?’
‘That sounds better,’ Pickup said turning to his solicitor, ‘and can you arrange it so you don’t object to that happening Mister Harris, because what I’m about to tell them is real serious shit and if they find out what I’ve said, the IRA’ll kill me.’
‘I act under your instructions Michael,’ the solicitor replied, ‘just be mindful about what you’re going to reveal to the officers and the possible consequences that may come your way. As they’ve told you, they can’t make deals, only recommendations.’
‘I’ll take that. I know what I’ve got myself involved in is serious. It’s not every day an armed copper puts a gun to my head when they arrest me. When that happens, you know you’re in deep shit. What do you want to know?’ Pickup asked the officers.
‘Start from the beginning,’ Steve said.
‘A few weeks ago I got the arm off Murphy saying I had to put Rory and Danny up in my flat. It’s Murphy’s flat and he lets me live there rent free. In return, I run his market stalls and go on any errands he wants doing. I asked him who they were and what they were doing in Liverpool. He told me they were brickies coming over from Ireland to do some work for him and the less I know the better. Murphy told me I was to do whatever they asked and that included anything from getting them food to getting done whatever they wanted. I thought that’s dodgy, but I was in no position to refuse. They came over about two weeks ago. The first week was alright. It was dead quiet. While they stayed at the flat, they came and went at all hours and I did as I was told, I asked no questions.
‘A week last Friday, Rory was looking out of the flat window that overlooks Ullet Road when he called out. I thought it was me he wanted, but when I saw Danny going in to the room, I realised it was him he shouted at. As I could hear Rory was angry, I stood by the door to listen in to what he was saying. They both started swearing. I looked through the crack in the door and saw them both looking out of the window and talking about this bloke and the bird he was with. Then they said something about some bizzy called Hurst and how he’d done something to them in the past. I couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying, but Danny decided he would go and follow them. As I didn’t want him catching me listening, I quickly went into my bedroom. I knew then they weren’t brickies and knowing Murphy’s not always legit, I thought they may be smuggling drugs or something like that.
‘The next Saturday they were really pissed off with this Hurst bloke. Rory and Danny went to the Wheatsheaf pub for a pint and they met Hurst who, with his mates, gave them a right good kicking. I wasn’t there when they had the fight, as I was at Murphy’s market stall in Gracie. When I got back later that afternoon, I could see the damage this Hurst had done to their faces. When I asked them what happened, they said they got into a fight at the Wheatsheaf and nothing else. That night I went to the pub and asked around about the fight. That’s when I heard about Hurst fronting them, calling them IRA and how he twatted them. I went back to the flat, told them what I heard and I asked them if they were IRA. They denied it at first. Then I mentioned the bizzy, Hurst and asked why he said they were IRA. Rory went mad. He got up from his seat and pinned me up against the wall with his hand around my throat. He squeezed my throat and punched me dead hard in the stomach and asked me what I knew. All I said was that I knew they were IRA and asked him what he was doing here, as I wanted no part in that type of shit. As I told you, I’m just a thief. Rory looked at Danny and actually asked him if they should kill me there and then. Danny said no and then said to me, that as I knew they were IRA I had a choice. It wasn’t a choice, either I did what they said or they’d kill me. I knew they meant it. Fuck me man, what would you do? Rory said that as they would have to stay in the flat most of the time to avoid being seen, I’d have to do even more jobs for them like passing messages on and that. Danny said if I didn’t come back, they knew where my family lives and they would kill them instead. I had no choice.’
‘What happened last night?’ Steve asked
‘Can I have a ciggie please Mister Adams? I’m gasping,’ Pickup said.
‘I’m sorry Michael, but it’s a no smoking room. I tell you what, when you finish telling me what you have to say, we’ll go straight to the exercise yard and you can have a smoke there,’ Steve said.
‘Fair enough boss. Before last night, Rory asked me to go back to the pub and find out as much as I could about Hurst and his family. I went to the pub for the next few nights and a couple of the regulars got chatting to me. When I got the chance and it was not so obvious, I mentioned that I shit myself the other week when I saw David Hurst in the pub. I go to know more about this bizzy as Rory and Danny told all me about him and how he shot a couple of their mates in some IRA job in the 1990’s. In the pub, I mentioned how I got lifted in Manchester by this David Hurst. Well from that, I found out his parents lived in Isaac Street and that his sister’s a teacher at St. Agnes School in Toxteth. When I got back and told Rory and Danny, they went on the Internet and checked out the School’s website and there was a picture of her as she’s the deputy head. They told me I had to find her and follow her around, see where she lives and goes out, that sort of thing.
‘It was easy to do and then Thursday night Rory came out with me in my car and I had to drive him around the places I had seen her. Obviously, now I know he was casing the places, sussing out the best place to get her. After I dropped him off back at the flat, he told me to go the Wheatsheaf and see if any of Hurst’s family was in there. It was an hour before closing time and Hurst’s father was sitting on his own reading a book and having a pint. I went over to him and said I was one of his daughter’s old pupils at school and I wanted to get in touch with her to tell how well I’d done. He was really nice and said it would be best to go to the school on the Monday as she was off on the Friday as it was her birthday, then he let it slip she was going out with a few of her mates to some club at the Albert Dock on the Saturday night to celebrate her birthday.
‘I went back to the flat and told Rory and Danny. That’s when they said I’d have to follow her on the Saturday and see where she goes. They told Murphy and he said I was to do as they said and I wouldn’t have to cover the market stall yesterday’
‘Did you know what they were planning?’ Steve asked.
‘They said I’d have to use my car and when the opportunity came up, we’d kidnap her, take her to some place they knew and get a ransom for her. I told them that I wasn’t happy with it, and if they were going to kill her, I wanted no part of it.’
‘What did they say?’ Steve asked.
‘They said I’d have to do as they fucking told me to or I was a dead man. I knew I had no choice but to do what they wanted or they would have killed me.’
‘What happened in the club,’ Steve asked.
‘We followed them from that Argentinean steakhouse over to the Albert Dock where we saw her and a few other women go into the club. We queued to get in. Once we got in, we got some beers and sat down at a table in a corner of the club where it was a bit darker. That was when Rory spotted what he thought were Special Branch bizzies. I thought to myself, fucking hell, if they’re Special Branch this must be serious shit. We watched them for a while and Danny noticed Hurst’s sister smoked and kept going outside for a ciggie. He told me and Danny that the next time she goes to the bar he would go over and speak to her, pretending he needed a light so he could get her outside. When he made his move, me and Danny were to get talking to the blokes Rory thought were Special Branch so they could not see him go out with Hurst’s sister. Then we were to follow them outside. The plan was for Rory to talk to her outside the club while they had a ciggie while me and Danny got into my car where I’d drive round, then we’d bundle her into the back of the car. They’d got keys off Declan Murphy to another house in the north end of Liverpool. It was some address in Kirkdale, just off Stanley Road. Once they got her there, David Hurst was to get a call telling him to call the police off Murphy as well as us in Liverpool or else they would kill his sister. And they fucking meant it! In some ways, I was made up when your lot arrested us. You know what happened when Rory got by the door, that scary bird fucking floored him. When she said she was MI5, I really shit myself, especially when she put that gun to my head. That’s it, that’s everything I know,’ Pickup said. He sat back, looked at both of the officers and said, ‘So what can you do for me?’