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IRA prisoners' details leaked on second-hand PC

Anyone out there know anything about data-wiping?

A second hand laptop is at the centre of two inquiries after it was found to be holding confidential records on some of the UK's most dangerous prisoners. The records are said to catalogue details from monitored phone calls from inmates at Belmarsh prison in south east London. The Home Secretary, Jack Straw, has ordered immediate investigations by the director general of the Prison service and by the Metropolitan Police into the leaking of the documents, according to a report in today's Times newspaper. The file contains details on IRA terrorists interned in Belmarsh, most notably Patrick Magee, given eight life sentences for the Brighton bomb in 1984. He is reported to have said that he would "see to" Gerry Adams if the IRA was defanged and that he had "a lot of scores to settle". Magee was released last month under the terms of the Good Friday agreement. The Home Secretary said he was very concerned about such sensitive data being found on a second-hand laptop, and that the Met was carrying out an urgent investigation. ®

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