'Man who ordered Finucane killing may face threat'
A top loyalist named as the man who ordered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane’s murder could now find his own life under threat, it was claimed tonight.
The Ulster Defence Association chief’s identity was set to be revealed in a documentary containing new allegations of British intelligence agencies collusion with terrorist killers to target Catholics in Northern Ireland.
One loyalist source said the paramilitary leader was now terrified of reprisals following claims he set up the Finucane murder with a RUC Special Branch officer who was then protected from prosecution.
‘‘It’s very embarrassing to be seen as working with the police and it’s possible his life could be in danger.
‘‘It doesn’t take an expert to work that out.’’
The 41-year-old from the Highcairn area of Belfast is understood to have been a UDA commander in the city until he was ousted two years ago.
He was stood down after failing to back UDA colleague Johnny Adair during a vicious loyalist shooting war with the rival Ulster Defence Association.
It is claimed he went berserk after another paramilitary colleague began talking about the murder of Pat Finucane.
UDA hitman Ken Barrett told the BBC’s Panorama team that his commander began ‘‘cracking up’’ after William Stobie, the organisation’s ex-quartermaster charged in connection with the 1989 killing, turned police informer.
Barrett said his boss told him: ‘‘Stobie will be lucky if he sees his f****** trial.’’
The paramilitary godfather’s fury was stoked by Stobie’s allegations that he had asked him to supply the guns used to shoot the solicitor in February 1989.
Although he was acquitted last year when a key prosecution witness failed to testify, Stobie was gunned down at his north Belfast home in December.
In tonight’s film allegations that covert military operatives and Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Branch figures allowed loyalists to target Catholics are made.
Barrett is named as the man who pulled the trigger in the Finucane killing.
Loyalists suspected Pat Finucane - who represented senior IRA men in court - was also a member of the organisation.
Both the Provisionals and his family categorically deny the allegation.
Barrett said an unnamed Special Branch officer urged him to take out what he called a ‘‘thorn in the side’’ and gave him vital assistance by ensuring the roads were clear on the night of the shooting.
Secretly filmed in hiding, he also claimed the UDA chief - described as one of the ‘‘untouchables’’ in loyalist north Belfast - introduced him to the police officer.
Loyalist sources have described the terrorist leader as a ‘‘manipulative’’ individual who directed operations behind the scenes.
‘‘People like Johnny Adair would have relied on his viewpoint,’’ one said.
‘‘He was the main man in B Company up until recently when he fell out of favour during the feud because he didn’t support (Adair’s) C Company.’’
Barrett was provided with detailed intelligence on Pat Finucane by Brian Nelson, the double agent used by the Army’s most secret wing, the Force Research Unit, to infiltrate loyalist terror gangs.
Allegations of collusion between paramilitaries and intelligence operatives have become so strong that Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens is now preparing to report on his third inquiry into the claims.
A retired Canadian judge has also been appointed by Prime Minister Tony Blair to examine the Finucane killing and five other controversial murders in Northern Ireland.
In tonight’s programme the FRU chief who recruited Nelson is confronted in a bid to answer the accusations.
Brigadier Gordon Kerr, now the British military attache in Beijing, has always defended the use of Nelson to take over UDA intelligence gathering by claiming it was meant to save lives.
He insisted FRU made every possible effort to inform police of all available intelligence on planned UDA attacks - an assessment rejected by incredulous Stevens team members.
Panorama’s John Ware travelled to China in a bid to quiz Brigadier Kerr about the collusion allegations.
The ex-FRU boss failed to answer Ware’s questions about claims he and his unit had been ‘‘complicit in murder’’.
He is now expected to be interviewed by the Stevens team before it publishes its findings later this year.
A spokesman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland, which has replaced the RUC, said the force would be making no comment on the allegations until after that report was released.
Alex Attwood, the nationalist SDLP’s policing spokesman who is backing the Finucane family’s campaign for a full public inquiry into the murder, spoke of the ‘‘frustration’’ which led to the UDA leader being named.
‘‘I don’t believe it will be prejudicial to getting to the truth of what happened or of achieving prosecutions,’’ he added.
