MATRIX CHURCHILL• 341This dramatic evidence had an electric effect in court, to the de-
gree that the prosecuting counsel, Alan Moses, QC, wrote privately
about ‘‘the propriety of continuing the prosecution against a man
who, on the evidence before the court, had rendered great service to
the country’’ to Sir Brian Unwin, chairman of the Customs Board.
Obviously infuriated, Unwin protested toSir Colin McCollabout
Balsom’s testimony, which had shown the defendant in the dock to
be a hero, not a scoundrel, but McColl responded robustly that his
officer had spoken ‘‘sincerely and impartially’’ in his evidence. Hen-
derson, said McColl, had shown ‘‘considerable bravery... whilst
knowing of the Iraqi ruthlessness in dealing with spies’’ and would
accept no criticism of his subordinate. Clearly Unwin had been irri-
tated by Balsom’s helpful evidence to Henderson, but when chal-
lenged on this point later, he claimed that he had merely protested
that SIS had failed to inform Customs of the full extent of its relation-
ship with the defendant. In reality, SIS had told Customs of Hender-
son’s role in October 1990 and given a very full picture to Customs
a month later at a meeting called to discuss the issue.
Henderson’s trial at the Old Bailey subsequently collapsed when
the judge inspected the government documents covered by numerous
PIICs, which proved Henderson’s role with SIS, and ruled that they
were highly relevant to the defense. A judicial inquiry was estab-
lished under Lord Justice Scott to investigate the circumstances of
the prosecution, and after hearings over two years concluded that, as-
tonishingly, the attorney-general, Sir Nicholas Lyell, had never been
told that Henderson worked for SIS. The Scott Inquiry Report, re-
leased in February 1996, strongly criticized ministers for having been
so willing to sign PIICs, thereby denying the Matrix Churchill defen-
dants their proper defense and leaving the public with the impression
that innocent men might have been imprisoned to keep them silent
about SIS’s operations.
The impact of the Matrix Churchill affair on SIS was to be long-
term because, despite the favorable evidence given at the trial by
Henderson’s handler, the service was perceived to have gladly en-
couraged its agent but then abandoned him when Customs had
moved in. The fact that Balsom had then praised his agent at the trial
as a man of tremendous courage only served to compound the of-
fense, both inside and outside Whitehall.