A FORMER British spy inside the IRA is facing up to 25 lawsuits in connection with a series of paramilitary murders and attacks.
The widening cohort of litigation against Peter Keeley emerged following a review at the High Court in Belfast.
Keeley is already being sued over a punishment shooting he allegedly described in a memoir about his undercover activities.
Peter McCabe (62) was shot multiple times after masked IRA men entered his Newry home in September 1990.
His lawyers allege Keeley was among the gang who subjected him to "an unlawful and brutal punishment-style attack".
Mr McCabe and seven of his relatives are taking actions against the ex-double agent, Ministry of Defence and PSNI Chief Constable for the
trauma of the shooting, claiming negligence, misfeasance in public office, and intentional infliction of harm.
Keeley is widely reported to be a one-time British soldier who infiltrated the IRA using the pseudonym Kevin Fulton.
In his memoir 'Unsung Hero', Fulton describes a punishment shooting carried out on an unidentified man. That victim is understood to be Mr McCabe.
Despite a dispute over who wrote the book, the plaintiffs' legal representatives believe they can connect Keeley to its authorship.
In court yesterday it emerged a further cohort of cases are being prepared, including actions by relatives of at least two IRA murder
victims.
One relates to Royal Irish Ranger Cyril Smith (21), who was killed in a bomb attack at a checkpoint in Killeen, near Newry, in October 1990.
Another case centres on the killing of RUC officer William Fullerton (48), ambushed and shot dead in his car near of Newry in January 1984.
Keeley has never been charged with any offences related to either attack.
But a law firm representing the victims' families claim he is liable through an alleged association with the terrorists involved and state
bodies said to have colluded in the activities.
It also emerged yesterday that a partially closed hearing may be required due to sensitive issues of national security.
With the McCabe cases already listed for a four-week trial early next year, when Keeley is expected to be subpoenaed to give evidence, Mr Justice
McAlinden urged lawyers to finalise issues in the related cohort of actions.
Outside court, Kevin Winters of KRW Law, who represent the plaintiffs, confirmed: "We are instructed in up to 25 cases involving the agent Peter
Keeley colluding with state agencies during the conflict".
"The breadth of his collusive activities is much greater than those incidents he admits to in his book, 'Unsung Hero'
"I have little doubt this list will grow after the true extent of state complicity emerges.
"It remains a shocking indictment of the State that nothing has been done to expose the systemic republican-state collusion underpinning all of these
High Court actions."
