Raymond Gilmour, 55, was a “supergrass” witness in a 1984 case in which more than 30 members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) paramilitary group were arrested in his native Londonderry, Northern Ireland’s second city.
The 55-year-old’s badly decomposed body was found at his home up to a week after he apparently died of natural causes, according to the Belfast Telegraph.
The 1984 case collapsed and Gilmour was resettled in England and given a new identity.
But he broke cover in 2012 to complain that he had been abandoned by his security services handlers.
He told BBC television they had promised him a cash sum, a new home, a pension and psychiatric support, but said he only received modest accommodation and a small monthly allowance for three years.
Gilmour’s friend and fellow agent, Martin McGartland, told the Belfast Telegraph: “It is disgraceful that Ray died in these circumstances.
“He spent years begging MI5 for financial and psychological help.
Instead, they turned their back on him.
“He was a broken man, a wreck of a human being, and they left him to die in the gutter.”
The newspaper reported that Gilmour was found in his flat in Kent, southeast England, by his 18-year-old son.
The funeral will take place next week.
Kent police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The IRA waged a violent struggle to end British control of Northern Ireland that endured for three decades.
l Northern Ireland could have a different relationship to the European Union’s single market or customs union from the rest of the United Kingdom following its exit from the EU, the leader of the British province said yesterday.
The head of Scotland’s devolved government Nicola Sturgeon this week said she would make specific proposals over the next few weeks to keep Scotland in the single market even if the rest of the UK left, and that British prime minister Theresa May had said she was prepared to listen to options.
Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom with a land border with the European Union and first minister Arlene Foster has repeatedly said she wants to avoid a “hard border” with border posts and customs checks with the Republic of Ireland.
Asked by Reuters if Northern Ireland might have a special status in relation to either the customs union or the EU’s single market Foster said “those are all matters, of course, for negotiation”.
“Because of our history and our geography that things will be slightly different here in Northern Ireland,” said Foster, speaking on the sidelines of her party’s annual conference.
“We have to recognise that we are the only part of the kingdom with a land border with the European Union so all of those issues have to be sorted through in the negotiation.”
She declined to give any further details of how a settlement might look.
The EU has said Britain’s exporters can have access to its single, tariff-free market of 500mn consumers only if it maintains the freedom of movement of people with the rest of the EU, which many supporters of Brexit oppose.
Remaining part of the customs union would allow Britain to trade freely with the bloc but would require it to share its common external tariffs, which could complicate attempts to strike free trade deals with other countries.
Fifty-six % of Northern Ireland voters rejected Brexit at the referendum in June.
But Foster, who campaigned for Britain to leave said those opposed to Brexit should accept the will of the 52% of Britons who voted to leave.
Foster has mocked the “remoaners” who refuse to accept the vote and welcomed the rejection by a court on Friday of a legal challenge to Britain’s moves to exit the union.
“All of this niceties around who voted what way is over. The vote has been had.We now need to get on and make it a success for everyone and that includes those people who didn’t want to leave.”
“I have no time for those who want to refight the referendum,” she said.
Foster said she had good relations with the government of the Republic of Ireland, but criticised it for attempting to use Brexit to poach foreign direct investment jobs from Northern Ireland.
