UVF man rewarded with contracts, claims dad
Tuesday, 6 February 2007
Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan may be asked to follow up her collusion report by investigating a UVF boss who was allegedly given highly paid contracts with the police and Army.
The father of a teenager butchered by the paramilitary chief's gang is considering a second complaint - one that would focus in on lucrative work that may have been done by the terror leader for the security forces.
Mrs O'Loan's investigators are already looking into the Co Armagh UVF man's connection to the murders David McIlwaine and Andrew Robb in 2000.
David's father, Paul, met Ombudsman representatives yesterday to discuss possible links between the UVF murders and last month's report on the activities of informer Mark Haddock.
Haddock was paid at least £80,000 while working as a police agent and allegedly carrying out a murder spree.
Mr McIlwaine believes the UVF leader linked to the murder of his son and Andrew Robb was rewarded by being given lucrative contracts.
The Ombudsman's collusion report mentions the stabbing deaths of the two Portadown teenagers among five murders that were linked to Haddock.
Mrs O'Loan indicated that some intelligence connected Haddock to those killings, but it was not rated as highly as the intelligence linking him to 10 other named murders.
Mr McIlwaine has already lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman about long delays in using forensic evidence in the murder of his son and Andrew Robb.
He believes police have protected the loyalist leader, who cannot be named for legal reasons, because he was an agent for the security forces.
Mr McIlwaine said the Ombudsman's office has not confirmed details but he believes investigators have established that that man was an agent.
There are different accounts about whether the UVF boss was present when the teenagers were killed on a remote road outside Tandragee, but he is believed to have helped the killers dispose of evidence.
He has never been charged in connection with the killings. Two men are currently awaiting trial for the murders.
Mr McIlwaine said his meeting with the Ombudsman's investigators was " productive".
He was accompanied by representatives of the group Relatives for Justice and British-Irish Rights Watch as well as SDLP MLA Dolores Kelly.
Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice said: "On the morning that the Ombudsman's report was published, Peter Hain said this related to a few bad apples.
"By mid-afternoon that day he conceded that it could be replicated across the North.
"In that context, the family are still focussed on a UVF commander in Mid Ulster who had clear relations with the police, carried a legally held firearm and carried out contract work with the MoD."
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