Jail probe over Adair visits list
Jailed loyalist Johnny Adair was at the centre of a probe after a piece of paper detailing his prison visits was found in the cell of another prisoner, it was disclosed today.
The Prison Authorities contacted the Royal Ulster Constabulary to investigate the incident at Maghaberry Prison in Co Antrim earlier this week.
A prison source said the paper, which also gives details of the names of his visitors, was unearthed during a routine search on Monday.
Loyalists have accused republicans of attempting to gather information on the movements of the jail’s most high profile prisoner.
Adair was warned he was in danger earlier in the year when strychnine was found in a high-energy drink he had bought in the prison shop.
Prison management offered him the opportunity to be segregated for his own safety but he turned it down.
The former Ulster Freedom Fighters boss was imprisoned after a security swoop last August as a bloody loyalist feud erupted in the Shankill area.
His arrest was ordered by the then Secretary of State Peter Mandelson on the grounds that he had breached the terms of his early release under the Good Friday Agreement.
After losing an appeal to the Sentence Review Commission, he has now elicited the support of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission for a judicial review of his incarceration.
