Hi °C | Lo °C Unionist politicians face a "day of reckoning" in the New Year when a damning report is expected to detail how a UVF gunman was able to continue killing while working for police, a campaigning father said today.
Raymond McCord, who has fought for nine years to expose the agent's role in the murder of his son, said many unionists should explain why they did not take up the case when he appealed for help.
The Police Ombudsman's report on the McCord case is expected to detail how the UVF agent was repeatedly suspected of killings while working as a Special Branch informer.
Secretary of State Peter Hain has already said the report "may be extremely uncomfortable for the British State" when it is produced by Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan, possibly next month.
A spokesman for Mrs O'Loan said: "This may be the most significant report we've produced to date."
Mr McCord said: "When this report comes out in the New Year it will be a day of reckoning for politicians who ignored this.
"They have to explain to my family and other victims why they didn't do anything about this. They can't say they weren't warned."
Raymond McCord Jnr was murdered by the UVF in 1997. A senior UVF figure, who worked for the police, is believed to have ordered the killing of the former RAF man, who had been used as a cannabis courier by the paramilitary gang.
Mr McCord Snr said: "The DUP, UUP and PUP have failed unionist victims time and time again. When is the DUP or the Unionist Party going to go after the UVF leadership who were sending these killer gangs out?"
Mr McCord said there has been a reluctance among unionists to acknowledge collusion.
"I didn't believe that collusion was happening between the UVF and British security forces," he said. "I didn't want to believe it. I've found out since the murder of my son it was being done on a heavy scale. "
He criticised Ian Paisley, saying it took him nine years to get a meeting with the DUP leader that lasted half an hour in October. Mr McCord said Mr Paisley had agreed to issue a statement, but failed to do so.
Ian Paisley Jnr, who was also at the meeting, said his party had accommodated Mr McCord and had issued a statement. He said he had posted a copy to Mr McCord.
Mr McCord said: "Ian Paisley is the man who told unionists, while he was shouting 'never, never, never', that they would smash Sinn Fein and rewrite the Good Friday Agreement.
"I've never heard Ian Paisley asking the Government to smash the UVF, who have been killing unionist people since their so-called ceasefire in 1994."
He also attacked PUP leader David Ervine, who said earlier this year that he has never resigned from the UVF.
"David Ervine could have done a lot for my family to get justice," he said. "He didn't.
"I'd like to remind Mr Ervine that my son was buried in a closed coffin through the brutality of the UVF.
"David Ervine went to Colombia recently to help the people there, but the organisation he says he's a member of haven't decommissioned one bullet and they're still involved in extortion, drugs and killings."
Mr Ervine said: "It was me who suggested to Raymond McCord in a number of private meetings that he go to the Police Ombudsman. If that's not being helpful, I don't know what is."
Mr McCord singled out North Down MP Sylvia Hermon as "the only one within unionist circles who was sincere and genuinely concerned and wanted to get justice for young Raymond."
