Special Branch raiders 'knew layout of offices'

More evidence that a break-in at a Special Branch compound in Belfast was an inside job emerged yesterday with the revelation that the office had been set up for only a week.

Security sources said all evidence gathered so far from the theft of documents containing details of informers and their handlers pointed to a well-planned and highly organised operation involving great precision.

Police in Belfast admitted that they were baffled about who was behind the raid at Castlereagh Special Branch offices in east Belfast on Sunday, and why. But it is widely accepted that the burglars must have had inside information to beat the tight security.

Amid such uncertainty, security surrounding the investigation into the murder of the Northern Ireland solicitor Pat Finucane has been stepped up as a precautionary measure.

The inquiry, headed by Sir John Stevens, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, is looking into claims that RUC and Army intelligence officers colluded in the Finucane shooting in Belfast in 1989. Sir John was believed to have been investigating Special Branch's role in the affair, and to have requested access to some of its documents.

Sir John Chilcot, a former civil servant who was involved in secret contacts with the IRA in the early 1990s, has been named as the head of a government review of the break-in. John Reid, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said the review would establish how the raiders gained access, what damage had been done to national security, and whether measures taken in response in were adequate.

Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the Chief Constable of Northern Ireland who retires at the end of the month, said material taken did not include the names of security force informers.

The office raided is known in Special Branch as "Two-twenty". It serves as a central contact point for informants in the Belfast area. The raiders, in addition to taking material from the office, also took a personal organiser belonging to the single Special Branch officer on duty at the time.

The fact that the raiders knew the office had been relocated a week earlier, because of refurbishment work, is viewed as a sign that the culprits were aware of the up-to-date layout of Castlereagh.

The burglary was described yesterday by a senior police source as a "worrying development" for the Stevens inquiry into the Finucane murder.

Security has been tightened in the past few days at several offices in secret locations in Northern Ireland and Britain where many sensitive documents from the Stevens inquiries are being held.

Another police source said: "As a result of the events at Castlereagh the Stevens inquiry is reviewing its security both in Northern Ireland and on the mainland." The source added: "We have got a lot of material relating to Special Branch and allegations of collusion which is being kept safe at a number of secret locations. We are reviewing the security of this material."

Investigators do not know whether any material stolen from the offices in Belfast relates to the Stevens inquiry.

The Finucane case has been one of the most controversial and long-running inquiries in Northern Ireland. The affair began in February 1989 when Mr Finucane, who was associated with high-profile republican cases, was killed at home in north Belfast by three loyalist gunmen belonging to the UDA. After the killing, UDA sources claimed that police had encouraged them to attack him. A senior UDA intelligence officer, Brian Nelson, was later revealed to have been planted in the organisation by the Army.

Nelson, who was jailed for 10 years for involvement in a number of murders, claimed he had informed his Army "handlers" that one of the leaders of the UDA's assassination teams had asked him to gather information on Mr Finucane.