Sister of Eugene Simons speaks out
Posted by Jim on August 9, 2025
THE IRISH NEWS:
British state put safety of ‘touts’ before ‘preservation of life’
Sister of Eugene Simons speaks out
Eugene Simons (26) disappeared in 1981
By Connla Young, Crime and Security Correspondent
August 09, 2025 at 6:00am BST
The sister of a man shot dead and secretly buried by the IRA has said the state put the safety of informers before “the preservation of life”.
Moira Todd was speaking after it emerged the RUC made no attempt to save the life of her brother Eugene Simons while he was being held captive by the Provisional IRA.
A father-of-three, Mr Simons was one of ‘The Disappeared’ – a group of people abducted, killed and secretly buried by republicans during the recent conflict.
Originally from the Castlewellan area of Co Down, the 26-year-old was taken across the border by the IRA after going missing on New Year’s Day 1981.
His remains were accidently discovered buried in a bog near Dundalk, Co Louth, in May 1984, by a man walking a dog.
New details about the circumstances of his death have emerged in a private report recently provided to the Simons family by Operation Kenova.
It was set up in 2016 to investigate the activities of the British agent known as Stakeknife – identified as Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci in 2003.
A former commander of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit (ISU), Scappaticci has been linked to 14 murders and 15 abductions.
Also known as the ‘Nutting Squad’, the ISU was responsible for hunting down and killing informers during the Troubles.
The report has revealed that authorities in the south of Ireland lost Mr Simons’ skull, which was recovered when his remains were found more than 40 years ago.
The IRA has never claimed responsibility or provided an explanation for why Mr Simons, who was also questioned by the republican group in 1980, was killed and secretly buried.
Operation Kenova has now confirmed “the role of the agent known as Stakeknife in the interrogation of Eugene in August 1980 and the planning of his abduction/murder on New Year’s Day 1981”.
The report says information was received that the IRA was investigating the possibility that there was two “touts” in its south Down unit after the arrests of four suspects, including Mr Simons, in May 1980.
It has now been revealed that after being ‘lifted’ by the IRA in 1981, Mr Simons was taken to a farmyard in Co Cavan for interrogation.
In its new report, Operation Kenova confirms that no intelligence has been recovered to suggest that the RUC or British army had prior knowledge that Mr Simons was to be taken away by the ISU.
The report also states that “despite the reliable information being received by the security sources, Kenova has found no evidence of any attempts being made by the Security Forces to try and locate Eugene”.
“It was the responsibility of the RUC to instigate such an operation,” the report states.
“We have also found no evidence of any liaison with the AGS (An Garda Síochána) by the RUC.”
Ms Todd was scathing of the RUC response to the disappearance of her brother.
“It’s unbelievable, it’s the state putting their intelligence and their touts before the preservation of life,” she said.
“Again, I say, Eugene was charged with nothing, ever, never claimed by the IRA, nothing, and yet they (RUC) had him in Castlereagh four times.
“One of those times he was taken out of the custody suite for something like three hours – what happened in those three hours?”
Despite having intelligence that Mr Simons was dead, this information was not passed on to his family by police, which continued to treat his disappearance as a missing persons case.
Ms Todd said the recent report shows “how little was done” for her brother by the RUC.
“No forensics, no nothing,” she said.
“And they kept up the pretence that he was still alive.”
Operation Kenova also highlights the RUC’s failure to tell the Simons family that their loved one had been killed.
“The most shocking element of our findings is that the family of Eugene were not officially informed by the RUC of the reliable information that Eugene had been abducted and murdered by PIRA,” the report said.
Kenova said there is evidence Mr Simons was “warned about his safety by the RUC” after he was interrogated by the IRA in 1980.
Ms Todd is not convinced her brother was warned that he was at risk.
“These were just standard (warnings), it’s a box ticked, if they did it at all,” she said.
Ms Todd has concerns about how police approached several suspects in the case, highlighting why some were “arrested, declined to speak (and) released”.
“Why were the main suspects handled with velvet gloves…they seem to have been?”
Several suspects were personally known to Mr Simons and his wider family.
The Kenova report reveals how his father Walter, who died in 2019, made his own enquiries “including approaching Suspect D in bars to ask them directly what had happened to Eugene”.
“Walter was met by silence,” the report said.
Ms Todd said her family knows the identities of several people connected with the disappearance of her brother.
“Although we don’t have their names formally given to us, we have identified quite a few of them and we know who they are,” she said.
She said her family has lost trust in the police and while Kenova has provided fresh information, the contents of the report also raises new questions.
“No, how can we trust them anymore?
“We have been lied to for so long and then finally the Kenova family reports come out and it does not give us the information we had hoped for.
“It’s another big disappointment.
“I will say Kenova has given us much more information than we had ever had, but I was hoping for something more in the report.”
She also paid tribute to her mother Mary, who pre-deceased her father.
“I just feel for my mother, who never spoke out, who just held Eugene in her heart but who suffered desperately because of this, suffered in silence,” she said.
“You (IRA) kept us going for three and a half years, you would have kept us going for longer only Eugene’s bones were found, and the suffering that caused the family, my mother in particular, it’s hard to come to terms with.”
On Friday, The Irish News revealed that the Simons case featured in a “sensitive investigation” into the leaking of information by an RUC officer to the Provisional IRA.
Operation Kenova has confirmed the case was considered by an probe headed by an assistant chief constable “from a force outside the RUC”.
Solicitor Kevin Winters, of KRW Law, has now contacted the PSNI.
“The revelation about RUC leaks to PIRA allied to the delay in letting the Simons family know Eugene was dead takes this investigation to another level altogether,” he said.
“We have contacted PSNI for more details on the original inquiry into internal leaks to see if this was a systemic issue.
“Standing back from it, this latest Kenova report, whilst helping the family, actually raises more questions than answers.”