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The claim that the body of an undercover North East soldier abducted in Northern Ireland was put through a mincing machine by his captors has been denied.

For years the grim story was part of the legend of Captain Robert Nairac who lived in Sunderland.

Nairac was abducted after being attacked in the car park of the Three Steps Inn in Drumintee, Co Armagh, 40 years ago this month, in 1977.

At the time of his abduction, he was armed but in plain clothes and was pretending to be ‘Danny from Belfast’.

He was forced into a car, driven by a gang across the border and shot dead in a field. His body has never been found.

Over the years, Nairac’s activities have been the subject of much speculation, including rumours that he worked with loyalist terror gangs.

However, this week on the Irish RTE TV programme Prime Time Geoff Knupfer, the lead investigator with the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR), said he was convinced that Nairac’s body could be found and dismissed the rumour it was put through a meat processor.

“It was a story put about by those personally involved,” he said.

“It was really about distracting attention from this area after the murder scene was found. We believe he is buried somewhere in north Co Louth.”

There have never been any searches for the body because the commission does not know the precise location to examine.

Mr Knupfer also denied the “wild allegations” that Nairac was involved in a number of killings while active.

He told Prime Time that the ICLVR had investigated details of the soldier’s military service and had not found “one shred of evidence” to support the allegations.

“We’ve tried to undertake a degree of research into his background because of these stories and really to find out if they were fact or fiction - we’ve done a lot of work on them,” Mr Knupfer explained.

“We’ve not found a shred of evidence anywhere to support what are effectively wild allegations that he was involved in murder and mayhem and atrocities.

“He wasn’t even in the island of Ireland when some of these events took place. And on other occasions he was elsewhere.”