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Operation Century was the code name for a sting operation for investigating a triple murder at Rettendon (Essex, England) Essex Police in 1995. It was assisted by Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Branch officers. The purpose of this operation was to bring pressure to bear on persons whom they suspected of having knowledge to disclose about the triple murder that would incriminate the suspects in question and/or others.

Contents 1 Overview 1.1 Service Delivery Standards 1.2 Essex Chief Constable Letter 1.3 Essex Police Authority 1.4 Home Office Response Letter

[edit] Overview

The operation produced no evidence leading to a criminal prosecution. The tactics deployed by Essex and Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Branch while Century was under way increasingly led to police voicing serious threats against the suspects in question. The operation was also carefully timed to coincide with the London bombing of Canary Wharf on the evening of February 9 1996, which marked the ending of the previous mainland Republican bombing campaign cease fire. One of the targeted Essex suspects received a call from Belfast within minutes of the Canary Wharf explosion. The Rettendon Triple Murders had absolutely no Irish connection in themselves or with the bombing. Irish affairs were introduced solely by police as part of the underying leverage for their undercover operation.

Transcripts of these calls became available (see later) and police eventually had to acknowledge that they were made by Belfast based Special Branch officers. These calls were repeatedly made to the Essex suspects from Ireland by RUC Special Branch posing as Republican drug runners making it clear that they could rely upon organisational back up, and additionally claiming that they had funded the criminal activities of one of the Rettenden murder victims who they were still demanding repayment from. This ruse failed to result in the suspects agreeing to any meetings.

There is a problem in trying to accurately portray what levels of threat and abuse Essex Police/Special Branch descended to during the course of this operation - the language was extremely foul-mouthed and threatening (and could have been taken by the suspects as amounting to death threats) and for reasons of conformity with Wikipedia standards many of the actual words though available cannot be reproduced. It is clear from the (London) Sun newspaper and (Essex Basildon Echo reports referred to below that this aspect of the police operation was taken very great exception to.

In one such call on February 26, 1996 undercover Special Branch threatened: "I've got (expletive deleted) A levels ... A levels in (expletive deleted) whacking (expletive deleted) people ... "it's time you did (expletive deleted) take these calls seriously ... as far as you're concerned you're (expletive deleted) cease fire's going ... I'll be in touch with you very (expletive deleted) soon ..... I've got a way, see what I (expletive deleted) do ... you watch your (expletive deleted) car".

According to an article "Drug baron's lover tell's of IRA "terror"" in the 'Basildon Evening Echo, 13 Oct. 1997, one of the suspects victimised in this manner was the common law wife of one of the murdered men by whom she had a young child. She claims to have had no knowledge at the time that these threatening tactics were not being deployed by Belfast-based Republicans and so she sought the assistance of Essex Police who, after appearing to have investigated the matter, informed her that the calls were made from Belfast, there were Republican connections and that the latter had now crossed to mainland Britain where they had had since been lost track of by police. The effect of these torture tactics upon an already distraught and grieving mother has been deplored.

In addition an end of Rettendon Murder trial Operation Century report by Ian Hepburn in The Sun newspaper "COPS POSED AS IRA TO SNARE HIT HITMAN" on January 28, 1998 judged it to have been "bizarre and intimidatory" for having "bombarded (victims name deleted) with death threat calls from Northern Ireland claiming they were owed money by one of the Rettendon victims".

Details concerning this undercover police operation came to light when persons were subsequently brought to trial towards the end of 1997 in connection with the Rettendon killings. Dated/timed tape recordings of the threatening police phone calls, recorded by one of the Operation Century "suspects" were produced in evidence by the defence counsel and were played in court. They clearly showed that the undercover police calls were increasingly threatening as Operation Century un-ravelled because the suspects disbelieved that Belfast Republicans had ever funded Essex criminal enterprises and so did not conform as the undercover officers had hoped.

[edit] Service Delivery Standards

Essex Police seriously ... as far as you're concerned you're (expletive deleted) cease fire's going ... I'll be in touch with you very (expletive deleted) soon ..... I've got a way, see what I (expletive deleted) do ... you watch your (expletive deleted) car".

Essex Police prided itself in having developed well publicised Service Delivery Standards (SDS). SDS 1.4 set out how they would treat those whom they had reason to investigate in connection with criminal offences "according to the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ... based on the dignity and worth of the individual". However, for this undercover police operation those Service Delivery Standards were abandoned.

[edit] Essex Chief Constable Letter

The then Chief Constable of Essex, John H Burrow. CBE. in correspondence wrote:

"Essex Police is, and will remain, committed to ensuring the highest principles in dealing with persons suspected of committing crimes.." (14 May 1998), "The approved plan of action quite specifically sought to create a realistic scenario without direct threats being made against any individual" (29 May 1998), "I am not prepared to engage in retrospective or hypothetical analysis of issues emanating from OPERATION CENTURY and can assist no further" (11 June 1998).

A senior Essex officer (Detective Superintendent Ivan Dibley) subsequently boasted in a media interview that he had had no intention of approaching certain Century suspects in the normal way and claimed that Century suspects had been Rettendon murder suspects from the start of their Rettendon investigations (Basildon Evening Echo. "HOW I CAUGHT KILLERS" 21 January 1998). It was similarly explained to journalists by Det. Supt. Dibley that in deploying Century tactics he was "breaking new ground" and hoping that they'd get away with it at court if evidence had been obtained. Another highly dubious and judicially censored undercover police operation (OPERATION EDZELL - deployed by the Metropolitan Police Service in the then relatively current Rachell Nickell murder case) was also cited to journalists by Essex Police (Supt. Dibley) as the backdrop against which Century had been adjudged by police as being fit to deploy.

[edit] Essex Police Authority

After the Rettendon Triple Murder Trial had concluded (January 1998) and OPERATION CENTURY details had beome the topic of very pointed criticism in one national media outlet (The Sun newspaper - referred to above) representations were made (14 February 1998) to both the Chair and every member of Essex Police Authority. The representations were made in the light of Essex Police agreement to adhere to "Service Delivery Standards". The (then) EPA Chair (Anthony Peel – 20 February 1998) replied with thanks for “a thought provoking letter”. He stressed that if Operation Century tactics had produced any confessional evidence “they most certainly would not (have) been admissible in evidence at any (criminal) trial”. He sought to lessen the gravity with which Essex Police Authority viewed Operation Century tactics by avering that “no part of the national media had reported Operation Century” except one national media outlet and that he did not know “the source of the information” provided to that particular newspaper. He stressed that Police Authorities could not become embroiled in “operational matters”, stressed that there is an established police complaints procedure and that no complaints so far as he knew had been made. “In this particular case the Police Authority are satisfied that the Essex Police have detected a particularly nasty voilent crime and that this is entirely in accordance with the Local Policing Plan objectives furthering the effective policing of the area”.

A year later in a subsequent letter (2 March 1999) Peel confirmed his view that OPERATION CENTURY was a "matter of operational policing ... basically not a matter for the Authority ... I have satisfied myself that the investigative matters had been properly authorised ... and therefore did not need to be brought to the attention of the Authority".

[edit] Home Office Response Letter

Representations were made to the (then) Home Office Ministers Kate Hoey M.P. and Paul Boateng M.P. On 19 May 1999 Hoey enclosed a letter from Mr Boateng (its date had been blacked out) who wrote that Century had been deployed because "all conventional methods had been exhausted and a covert operation was the last option to infiltrate the criminal network. All issues and decisions were considered at the highest level before being actioned ... Since the actions and decisions taken by police officers ... are operational matters they are the responsibility of the chief officer of police ... there is no authority for Ministers to intervene in police commanders' operational responsibility. I suggest that the matter should be taken up directly with the Chief Officer if there are specific concerns about their work". Kate Hoey expressed an "appreciation that this was not a response that one would have hoped for".

The primary source for correspondence, documents and other information contained in this article is the publication "WE'RE BREAKING NEW GROUND": OPERATION CENTURY. by IAN CAMERON. (London.September 1999).