A counselling psychologist who denied giving an RUC officer's details to the IRA lost a High Court action in Belfast yesterday over being refused security clearance to work with prison officers.
Ms Anna McConway, from Dunmurry, near Belfast, applied for a judicial review after learning that the allegation led to her being blacklisted by Special Branch. The 1986 allegation came to light in 1999 when Corecare, a counselling firm for which she did work, was awarded the contract to supply counselling services to the Prison Service.
Mr Justice Kerr said Ms McConway had roundly denied the allegation.
She had recounted an incident in September 1996, involving a Det Const Donald Douglas with whom she had become acquainted.
The judge said Ms McConway stated the officer had frequently asked her to go out with him but she had refused. "In September 1996, as she was leaving her daughter to school, the detective constable approached her and told her that two men wanted to speak to her," said Mr Justice Kerr.
"She got into a police car and spoke to two men she believed were police officers in plain clothes. They asked her to keep an eye on what was happening in bars in Andersonstown and to report to them. She refused."
Mr Justice Kerr said: "In her situation, it is tempting to make a connection between her rejection of Det Const Douglas and her refusal to assist Special Branch and the surfacing of these allegations.
"But the fact remains that the person who supplied the information was considered by an experienced police officer to be a reliable source."
The police were bound to record the information and to relay it to the Prison Service. Once received, the Prison Service had no alternative but to act upon it, the judge ruled.