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Christopher John Hanna (c. 1947 – 27 December 1992), was a prison officer who held a senior position inside the Maze Prison, Northern Ireland. In June 1990 he was sentenced to life imprisonment at Maghaberry for helping the Provisional IRA kill colleague Brian Armour two years previously. He was also accused by former Ulster Defence Association (UDA) leader Andy Tyrie of complicity in UDA South Belfast brigadier John McMichael's death in 1987. McMichael was blown up by a booby-trap bomb placed underneath his car. According to Tyrie, Hanna gathered information about McMichael when the latter visited loyalist inmates. Hanna in his turn passed on the information to local Belfast actress, Rosena Brown with whom Hanna was infatuated. Brown, dubbed the "IRA Mata Hari", served as an Intelligence Officer of the IRA. Hanna also passed on information about Armour to Brown, who was named at Hanna's trial. Hanna was part of an IRA plan to stage a massive prison escape using weapons and explosives smuggled in by prison officers. The plan did not come to fruition. Former IRA member Sean O'Callaghan, who became an informer for the Garda Siochana, was a fellow inmate of Hanna whilst both were serving their respective sentences at Maghaberry. He described him as an "extremely dangerous and irrational man". Hanna died of cancer at the age of 45. ==Prison service== Christopher John Hanna, known as John, was born in Northern Ireland in about 1947, and brought up in a Protestant family. In 1971, he joined the prison service. According to Sean O'Callaghan, Hanna's former inmate at Maghaberry, he was already a member of the illegal loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).〔O'Callaghan, Sean (1999). ''The Informer''. Great Britain: Corgi Books. p.340〕 He allegedly helped the UVF to smuggle a bomb inside the Crumlin Road Gaol in order to kill an IRA prisoner. The plan failed; however, O'Callaghan alleged that he continued to collaborate with the UVF, Ulster Defence Association (UDA), IRA, as well as working for the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Branch.〔 He was sent to the Maze Prison, on the outskirts of Lisburn, where he became one of the prison's highest-ranking officers. Northern Ireland's 3,000 prison officers were responsible for "the most dangerous prison population in Europe". A government report admitted that a large number of the officers were speedily recruited in the 1970s and that as result, their "quality was patchy".〔Geraghty, Tony (1998). ''The Irish War: the hidden conflict between the IRA and British Intelligence''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p.97〕 Hanna personally oversaw a staff of 22 men who controlled an H-Block that housed senior IRA prisoners. On some nights, he was duty officer in charge of the entire Maze Prison and as such he had access to every key.〔("IRA prison spy dies of cancer". ''Belfast Telegraph''. David McKittrick. 28 December 1992 ) Retrieved 31 January 2012〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Hanna (prison officer)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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