Brigadier Kerr, 55, Britain's most senior military man on the mainland, is a decorated veteran of the cloak-and-dagger world. He is thought to co-ordinate a network of informants and operatives in the post-cold-war campaign for intelligence.

But it is his former role as head of the Force Research Unit (FRU) - allegedly the most secretive and dangerous of all the covert British military intelligence groups - that has come back to haunt him amid growing pressure from lobby groups and investigators.

Brigadier Kerr, then a colonel, took over command of the FRU in 1987.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens, who is leading the investigation into the FRU's activities, announced nine days ago that he had prepared prosecution papers in relation to Brigadier Kerr and had forwarded them to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

He stopped short of saying that he would be recommending a prosecution. But he found there had been collusion between military intelligence officials and Protestant Loyalist death squads in Northern Ireland who carried out the assassinations.

Pressure by the victims' relatives for action has been mounting. They are calling for a public inquiry into the killings.

The findings follow those reached by Judge Peter Cory in a series of unpublished reports of investigations into eight of the most controversial murders, which were sealed from public view by the UK government last October.

For the first time since the wide-ranging investigation began, the family of Pat Finucane, an outspoken Catholic solicitor who was murdered in front of his family at his home in Belfast in 1989, is due to meet Commissioner Stevens tomorrow.

Last Thursday was the 15th anniversary of Finucane's murder.

The British embassy in Beijing, the British consulate in Hong Kong and Britain's Ministry of Defence refused to comment on the pending legal decision.

Efforts by the Sunday Morning Post to contact Brigadier Kerr for comment during his visit to Hong Kong and southern China last week were unsuccessful. But Brigadier Kerr did pose for photographs with his PLA counterparts during the unprecedented visit of Beijing's corps of foreign military attaches to the military garrison at Stonecutter's Bay last Monday.

Hong Kong's reputation as a centre for espionage is understood to have been an issue of concern for the delegation, which included more than 100 senior military personnel from 57 countries.

One highly prized British asset, Cai Xiaohong, former secretary-general of the central government's liaison office in Hong Kong, was recently arrested on the mainland on charges of spying for London in return for cash.

But it is the methods of the FRU while under Brigadier Kerr's command during Britain's dirty war in Ulster that are causing the biggest headache for the UK's top military brass.

At the heart of the FRU scandal are allegations the covert intelligence cell, which has links to MI5 and Special Branch, passed information to loyalist terrorists, recruited as double agents, which was used to kill Catholics and Republicans.

At least 14 civilians, including lawyers and activists, are thought to have been killed during the campaign. Some counter-insurgency operatives have described the operation as a work of genius and a 'great military coup'.

It is claimed that the FRU's activities were discussed in detail at meetings of the Joint Intelligence Committee chaired by Margaret Thatcher, who was British prime minister at the time.

When Brigadier Kerr's name began to surface in public about three years ago, the British Ministry of Defence said it had 'full confidence in his suitability and capability' to continue working in Beijing.