Army tried to recruit suspected IRA informer's widow

Claire Dignam says she was approached by a British officer after her husband's murder

The widow of a man murdered by the IRA as an informer, has told the BBC that the British Army tried to recruit her as an informant.

Claire Dignam said she was shocked by the approach, which was made following the death of her husband, John, in 1992.

It is believed he was killed because he was suspected of working for the British security services.

The Ministry of Defence said it could neither confirm nor deny the claims.

In an interview for BBC Northern Ireland's Spotlight documentary, Our Dirty War: The British State and the IRA, Mrs Dignam said she had been approached by "a British soldier who was pretty high up", shortly after the discovery of her husband's body.

"He tried to ask me who I knew within the IRA," she said, adding that he asked her: "Why not tell us what you know?"

Johnny Dignam was a 32-year-old IRA member and former Republican prisoner from Portadown. He was one of three people whose bodies were found on a country roadside in south Armagh in July 1992.

A tape was later obtained by the BBC, in which Dignam admitted to being an informer for the British security services.

He is thought to have been interrogated for several days by the IRA's Internal Security Unit (ISU) before making the confession.

Mrs Dignam said the British officer had offered her and her children a new life, but she said she was horrified: "I was still numb after my husband and then this happens. I really felt frightened for my life."

Johnny Dignam fell under suspicion as an informer and was killed by the IRA in 1992

The killings of suspected IRA informers have been scrutinised in a seven-year police investigation, Operation Kenova. Its interim findings are due to be published later this week.

The focus of the investigation is the activities of a British agent, Freddie Scappaticci, whose codename was "Stakeknife".

Scappaticci - who died last year - was the army's highly placed source at the top of the IRA.

However, for several years during the Troubles, he was responsible for interrogating suspected informers, and as such was suspected of involvement in the murders of 17 people.

Detectives from Operation Kenova spoke to Ms Dignam as part of their investigation.

Read Peter Taylor's full report: "One sound still haunts me - the banging pan that meant a suspected informer was about to confess"

Watch Peter's documentary - Our Dirty War: The British State and the IRA - is available on BBC iPlayer. It can also be seen on BBC One Northern Ireland at 22:40 on Tuesday 5 March and UK-wide on BBC Two at 23:15 on Thursday 7 March