Man in court over Nairac kidnapping

A MAN will appear in court today charged with kidnapping and falsely imprisoning the British soldier Robert Nairac 30 years ago.

The 57-year-old suspect, understood to be Kevin Crilly, was charged last night in connection with the 1977 disappearance of the undercover army officer.

Crilly was arrested yesterday at an address in Jonesborough, South Armagh.

Captain Nairac, 29, was captured by the IRA, interrogated and shot. Six men were convicted for their part in the killing, three for murder, but his body was never recovered.

Capt Nairac was kidnapped by an IRA gang in the car park of a pub in Dromintee, South Armagh. He was working undercover for an army unit and had told customers in the bar he was a republican from Ardoyne, Belfast.

Outside the bar he was grabbed by his abductors and driven to the Ravensdale Forest, Co Louth, in the Irish Republic, where he was brutally beaten and questioned for several hours in an effort to make him talk about his secret role.

Before he was shot and his body dumped, one of the interrogators posed as a priest in an attempt to coax the young captain into a confession.