Investigative reporter Dónal MacIntyre has asked the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) to look into allegations that he was placed under directed surveillance and had his social media posts monitored by Northern Ireland police.
MacIntyre has learned that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) placed him under surveillance when he began his investigation into the mysterious death of a Belfast teenager in August 2023.
MacIntyre is one of the most prominent investigative reporters in Britain, and the man behind the BBC’s MacIntyre undercover and CBS reality show Donal MacIntyre: Unsolved.
Since 2023, MacIntyre has led an investigation into the death of Noah Donohoe, a biracial Catholic teenager whose remains were found in a Belfast storm drain in 2020. Police handling of the case has drawn widespread criticism from the public.
MacIntyre’s suspicions were first raised when he arrived at Heathrow Airport after a three-day trip to Ireland in October 2024 to find his car had been broken into. Sensitive files left on a seat had been scattered all over the car floor, while cash, jewellery and technology were left undisturbed.
Spying operation revealed
Then, two months after the break-in, MacIntyre was contacted by a reporter from the Belfast Telegraph, who had been told by a reliable source that MacIntyre had been placed under police surveillance. The surveillance, the source claimed, had begun around the time the reporter had begun investigating the teen’s disappearance.
The spying operation was said to have been given an unknown codename. The source also claimed that messages between MacIntyre and Donohoe’s mother had been accessed by police.
Despite being repeatedly questioned as to whether they had spied on MacIntyre, the PSNI did not deny the allegations until five days later.
Jon Boutcher, chief constable of the PSNI, told a Northern Ireland Policing Board meeting that in August 2023, the force had taken information from two Twitter accounts.
Boutcher said: “These communications would have been publicly accessible, but I accept the publisher of the posts would not be aware that PSNI had viewed and captured the publications. No confidential journalistic material was viewed or recorded.”
MacIntyre told Computer Weekly that his submission to the coroner charged with investigating the circumstances of Donohoe’s death seemed to be the main target of interest during the break-in.
The submission included a summary of the findings of his investigation into Donohoe’s death and the police handling of the case, and raised questions over the reliability of the IT systems used by the PSNI to record reports of crime incidents.
When MacIntyre contacted airport police, he told Computer Weekly, they informed him that there was no CCTV in the car park.
Donohoe’s death and questions surrounding police handling of the case have commanded massive attention in the North of Ireland.
If MacIntyre’s investigation reveals failures in the PSNI’s handling of the case, it could be highly embarrassing for the force.
Chief constable ‘should resign’ if allegations proved
MacIntyre told Computer Weekly that if it is found that he was subject to an authorised direct surveillance operation, Boutcher should be forced to resign as PSNI chief constable.
The threshold for commissioning directed surveillance is high. It is only legal for the police to commission this type of surveillance in extreme circumstances, such as where someone’s life is at risk or for preventing or detecting serious crime.
Last year, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled that the PSNI had placed Belfast-based journalists Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey under unlawful surveillance over their investigation into collusion between the Royal Ulster Constabulary and loyalist paramilitaries.
Figures disclosed to the Northern Ireland Policing Board last year also showed significant police spying on journalists and lawyers between 2011 and 2024.
According to the data, police had made 823 applications for communications data relating to journalists who were victims, suspects or witnesses to crime. Ten of the PSNI applications explicitly sought to identify journalistic sources.
Concerns over secret annex to McCullough surveillance review
MacIntyre has also submitted evidence to the McCullough Review – a review established last year by chief constable Boutcher to investigate PSNI spying on journalists and lawyers.
Last week, however, concerns were raised after it was announced that some of the findings may be included in a closed annex, inaccessible to the public.
McCaffrey, a victim of unlawful police spying, told Computer Weekly he was “very concerned that large parts of the McCullough Review may now be kept secret” and that the PSNI was using the excuse of protecting national security as a “smoke screen” intended to “prevent the exposure of their unlawful spying operations”.
He said when the McCullough Review was announced in June 2024, journalists had been assured “it would be independent and thorough and would restore public confidence in policing”.
A review that fails to grant the public full access, he said, will not suffice: “The only process which can fully restore public confidence in policing is an independent, judge-led public inquiry with full powers to compel all evidence.”
