Man with learning difficulties branded a ‘tout’ and murdered by the IRA was not an informer

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Man with learning difficulties branded a ‘tout’ and murdered by the IRA was not an informer
Investigation found no evidence that Damian McCrory had provided information to the RUC

Damien McCrory was shot dead in Strabane, In a statement issued to the media, the IRA claimed responsibility and said McCrory had been a police informer.

By Connla Young, Crime and Security Correspondent
September 22, 2025 at 6:00am BST

Operation Kenova has concluded there is no evidence a man killed by the Provisional IRA provided information that resulted in three republicans being shot dead by the British army.
Damian McCrory, from Strabane, was abducted, interrogated and killed by the IRA on October 7, 1985.
The 20-year-old was last seen alive at his Innisfree Gardens home at around midday on October 6.
His body was found in the nearby Drumrallagh Estate just after 10pm the next day – a period of around 34 hours from abduction to death.

Brothers David and Michael Devine, and Charles Breslin who were shot dead in an ambush in Strabane by the SAS in 1985

A ‘confession letter’ was later posted to his family, although it is said he could not read or write.
The 20-year-old, who had learning difficulties, was accused by the IRA of passing information to the RUC that resulted in Charles Breslin (20) and brothers Michael (22) and David Devine (16) being ambushed and killed by the British army.
The three IRA members were shot dead close to an arms dump on the outskirts of Strabane in February 1985.

It has previously been claimed the SAS was involved.
Mr McCrory was a close friend of Mr Breslin.
Days after Mr McCrory was shot dead the IRA released a statement claiming he had been working for the RUC for 13 months and accused him of using a walkie talkie to update police on the movements of his friend and the Devine brothers when they were gunned down.
The republican group also claimed he was given various “direction tracking devices” and “movement detectors” that he was “told to plant in any weapons or dumps that he came across”.

The murder of Mr McCrory has been examined by Operation Kenova.

It was established in 2016 to investigate the activities of the British agent known as Stakeknife – identified as Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci in 2003.
A former commander of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit (ISU), Scappaticci has been linked to 14 murders and 15 abductions.
Also known as the ‘Nutting Squad’, the ISU was responsible for hunting down and killing informers.
An interim report into Scappaticci’s activities was published last year, with a final version yet to be made public.
As part of the Operation Kenova investigation, relatives of some victims have been provided with bespoke family reports.
In recent weeks Operation Kenova officials met with the Mr McCrory family and presented them with a family report.
Investigators have been given unprecedented access to RUC, British army and MI5 records over recent years.
As part of a ‘neither confirm nor deny’ (NCND) policy used by British state agencies, Operation Kenova cannot confirm if any person, including Scappaticci, has or has not worked for the state.
Despite the policy, the Operation Kenova report concludes “there is no evidence that Damian passed intelligence to RUC Special Branch about the arms dump where the three members of PIRA were shot dead by the British army in February 1985”.
Operation Kenova also confirms that “intelligence suggests that Damian was told that if he admitted being an informant he would be released”.
“Kenova believes that it is highly likely Damian would have made false admissions in order to be released,” the report states.
The investigation team believes that Mr McCrory was “placed under such immense pressure by members of the ISU that resulted in him admitting to matters for which he was not responsible”.
Investigators say this belief is supported “by the fact that his alleged confession, published by PIRA, contains information he could not have been responsible for”.

The reports says that Operation Kenova has obtained evidence “in respect of a number of PRIA ISU interrogations”.
“These interrogations were conducted using both physical and mental torture,” the report says.
“Therefore, any confessions obtained in such a manor should be disregarded.”
The report also confirms that agent Stakeknife later reported on the killing of Mr McCrory to his handlers, “but there is no evidence or intelligence to show that he personally took part in Damian’s interrogation and murder”.
Operation Kenova’s assessment is that Mr McCrory was a “vulnerable young man forced by PIRA to admit to passing information to the authorities which he was not responsible for.
“This led to his callous murder by PIRA,” the report states.
After Mr McCrory was killed the IRA faced a backlash in some quarters.
Operation Kenova now claims that there “was, and is, a consensus amongst the Strabane community in which Damian lived, that he was incapable of doing the acts he was accused of by PIRA”.
Investigators say the information they have examined supports that view.
“Intelligence reflect(s) the community feeling that Damian was a ‘scapegoat’ for PIRA operational failures due to actions of others, of which Damian had no knowledge or control over,” the report states.
An assessment of information linked to the case suggests there was “significant intelligence in the aftermath of Damien’s murder naming individuals potentially involved in his interrogation and murder”.

The report also suggests more than one informer later provided information about Mr McCrory.
The document reveals there was 15 separate pieces of intelligence received by RUC Special Branch “much of which was received shortly after Damian’s murder and which came from a number of different informants”.
The report confirms the IRA has a “very real suspicion” that there was an informer in its Strabane unit and “actively investigated” this after the Breslin and Devine brothers’ ambush.
“According to intelligence named individuals were questioned by the IRA but released,” the report states.
The report adds that “PIRA also suspected incompetence within leadership of local units.”
This suspicion was “heightened” after Charles Breslin and the Devine brothers’ were killed.
Mr McCrory’s family say he was not a member of the IRA and in its 1985 statement the republican group described him as a “civilian”.
However, it is believed he had helped the IRA in the past.
In September 1984 he was arrested and questioned by the RUC before being released without charge.

In its 1985 statement the IRA said after its security personnel carried out a “long and painstaking investigation” into the killing of its three members “a number of facts came to their attention which led them to arrest this man (Mr McCrory)”.
According to Operation Kenova, intelligence suggests Mr McCrory “was not under suspicion by PIRA until he was abducted and debriefed by the PIRA security unit post his arrest by the RUC in September 1984”.
The report adds that Kenova “found no evidence that there was any intelligence reporting prior to Damien’s abduction that could have prevented his death”.
Intelligence also identified “three separate suspects who were reported to have shot” Mr McCrory, identified in the Kenova report as F, G and K.
They are among 11 suspects in total highlighted by the investigation.
These include Suspect J, who repeatedly called at Mr McCrory’s home on the day he was abducted.
Suspect A has been named as “responsible for suspicion being pointed at Damian as being an informer” while Kenova says intelligence indicates another suspect ordered the shooting and posted the confession letter to Mr McCrory’s family.
Operation Kenova has also carried out detailed forensic analysis of the gun used to kill Mr McCrory.
It has viewed original investigation files for the killing of Daniel Mallon in Strabane on August 22, 1985 “where it is suggested that the same weapon was used to also murder Damian”.
The 65-year-old father-of-four was shot dead by the IRA as he sat in the Railway Bar in the town in a case of mistaken identity.
“Intelligence and investigative strategy suggests that persons of interest appear in this and Damian’s murder,” the Kenova report states.
The weapon used has never been recovered.