Collusion row agent dies
A British agent at the centre of alleged security force collusion with loyalist paramilitary killers in Northern Ireland has died, it was revealed tonight.
Brian Nelson was a former Ulster Defence Association head of information recruited by military intelligence at the height of the Troubles.
One of the targets for assassination he compiled a dossier on was Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, who was shot dead by UDA gunmen in February 1989.
But as Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens prepares to publish a major new report on the killing and claims of police and army conspiracy with loyalists, it emerged that Nelson died yesterday of natural causes.
Friends and security sources confirmed the ex-soldier, who was living at a secret location in England, suffered a heart attack two weeks ago.
“He then had a massive brain haemorrhage yesterday and that was it,” one said.
