Robert Hannigan

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Robert Hannigan  link Powerbase (Spook)
Born	1965 (a Gloucestershire
Alma mater	Wadham College, Oxford, Heythrop College, University of London
Children	2
A former Director of Intelligence and Security, GCHQ until he resigned after giving character reference to a close friend VIPaedophile priest, who went on to reoffend.

Robert Hannigan is the former Director of Government Communications Headquarters who was replaced by Jeremy Fleming in March 2017. Hannigan resigned after giving character reference to a close friend and VIPaedophile priest, who went on to reoffend.

Career

"Robert Hannigan joined the FCO as Director General, Defence and Intelligence on 29 March 2010. For a number of years he has advised the Prime Minister on counter terrorism, intelligence and security policy."

The date for becoming Director of GCHQ is speculative, assuming that there was no hiatus after Iain Lobban resigned. On 23 January 2017, Hannigan announced that he had decided to resign once a successor to his role as director had been found, explaining in a letter to the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, that his resignation was for personal reasons.

ISIS and the internet

Hannigan is reported to have said that ISIS had "embraced the web as a noisy channel in which to promote itself, intimidate people, and radicalise new recruits."

VIPaedophile character reference

In 2017, Hannigan suddenly resigned from GCHQ after the National Crime Agency discovered that he had helped a close friend, the paedophile Catholic priest Father Edmund Higgins, to avoid going to prison. Hannigan provided a character reference for Father Higgins at his 2013 trial. Higgins, from Richmond in London (an area known for its many UK/VIPaedophile cases, went on to reoffend.