A judge has spared the British army from revealing the amount of money it paid to Brian Nelson, the intelligence agent alleged to have been involved in the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.
In the High Court in Belfast, Mr Justice Gillen ruled such information was not necessary to enable a compensation claim to go ahead.
Mr Nelson (51) and the Ministry of Defence are being sued for damages by Mr Finucane's widow, Geraldine. She has alleged Mr Nelson targeted her husband for assassination in their home at Fortwilliam Drive, Belfast, on February 12th, 1989.
At the time ex-soldier Mr Nelson was living a double life as the UDA's senior intelligence officer and an army agent. He was not charged in connect ion with Mr Finucane's murder but in 1992 he was convicted on five unrelated charges of conspiracy to murder, was jailed for 10 years and was released after four. In papers lodged in court in 1995 in a defence to Mrs Finucane's claim the army admitted Mr Nelson was an agent.
But the admission has only now been made public following the army's appeal against an order to provide what is legally referred to as "fuller and better particulars".
In the court papers the army denied any liability for the murder and claimed if Mr Nelson had prior knowledge of it he did not inform it "as he was required to do".
At a hearing last December, a High Court Master directed the Ministry of Defence to provide information to Mrs Finucane's lawyers in answer to seven questions.
The Ministry appealed and Mr Justice Gillen found in its favour in respect of five of the questions and part of another. The only question which he directed the Ministry to answer was when it engaged Mr Nelson as an agent.
As well as reversing the ruling in regard to the money paid to Mr Nelson, the judge also reversed the Master's order relating to his precise role in military intelligence, the circumstances in which he was engaged, the procedure for recording information and the procedure for conveying such information to the RUC.
In regard to payments, Mr Just ice Gillen said: "The circumstances and amount of any payments may vary enormously over a lengthy period and arise in instances wholly unrelated to anything remotely touching upon this case."