A UVF killer has said he won’t provide information about the terror group’s activities even if the proposed Troubles amnesty becomes law.
Garfield Beattie, who was jailed for three killings carried out while he was part of the notorious Glenanne gang, told Sunday Life the police already had the names of people responsible for many murders.
“There are men out there who committed mass murders and I never named them,” he said.
“I covered for a litany of men through a sense of loyalty. You didn’t want it bandied about that you were an informer, that you gave everybody away to save your own neck.”
When asked if he would name the men to this newspaper or give their names to any truth and reconciliation commission in the future, Beattie, a former member of the Territorial Army Volunteer Reserve, replied: “Not at all. There are men who, when they went into the barracks, told the police everything. They literally squealed the heap.
“I was one of the few who said nothing. The police know it all. People who were lifted made clandestine deals behind everybody’s back and got everybody else lifted.
“Why start naming names now? The past is the past and they are not going to get any conviction. I have thought about it [talking], but no.”
The 64-year-old served 16 years in prison for three murders, including that of 36-year-old Denis Mullen, who was gunned down at his home near Moy, Co Tyrone, in 1975.
The SDLP activist was the father of Aontu councillor Denise Mullen, who was just four years old when her dad was murdered.
She revealed in 2018 that an investigation into the murder was reopened after Beattie gave her new information, including details about one of the killers, although he withheld his name.
Ms Mullen told the Belfast Telegraph: “I spent three hours with him in his house. He told me about other people who were involved in my daddy’s murder.
“He told me of the chain of command, where the order came from and how it came to be that he had to target my mother and father.”
Beattie also took part in the gun attack on the Eagle Bar in Charlemont, Co Armagh, in April 1976, after which Fredrick McLoughlin (48) died from his injuries.
He was further convicted of the murder of 54-year-old Patrick McNeice at his home near Loughgall, Co Armagh, in July 1976.
Today, he believes that he is being unfairly portrayed as a serial killer, even though others committed similar, if not even more heinous, crimes.
“I’m sick, sore and tired of getting all this flak as if I’m some sort of Billy Wright or Robin Jackson. I’m not,” Beattie explained.
“I was in jail at 19 years of age. Some of us were very young and some of us were very easily led.”
The former UVF man, who once claimed that his grandfather was a member of the IRA in the Loughgall area in the 1920s, added that one of the people he blames for the outbreak of the Troubles is the late DUP founder and ex-First Minister Ian Paisley.
Beattie maintains that he severed all connections with UVF figures and turned to religion while in prison in 1981.
The former inmate no longer considers himself a loyalist, referencing the murder of the Reavey brothers in 1976 — carried out by other members of the Glenanne gang — as one of the reasons why.
John Martin Reavey (24) and his brother Brian (22) were watching television at their home in Whitecross, south Armagh, when they were gunned down by the UVF. A third brother, Anthony (17), died of injuries sustained in the attack weeks later.
The Glenanne gang, which is said to have been based at a south Armagh farm owned by former RUC reservist James Mitchell, who died in 2008, has been linked to more than 120 sectarian murders, largely throughout Tyrone and Armagh, during the 1970s and 1980s.
Among the atrocities it was also responsible for were the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, which together claimed 33 lives, and the Miami Showband massacre the following year.
The group was returning from performing at a dance in Banbridge when their minibus was flagged down by men dressed in Army uniforms.
The members were told to line up in a ditch while UVF terrorists tried to plant a bomb on their minibus that they hoped would explode as the band returned to Dublin. However, it blew up prematurely, killing UVF members Harris Boyle and Wesley Somerville, both of whom were also in the UDR.
After the explosion, the terrorists opened fire, killing lead singer Fran O’Toole, guitarist Tony Geraghty and trumpeter Brian McCoy. Guitarist Stephen Travers and saxophonist Des Lee survived.
With serving members of the RUC and UDR having been part of the murder gang, allegations of collusion have been part of the case for decades.
Last year, Unquiet Graves, a documentary about the Glenanne gang, directed by Belfast filmmaker Sean Murray, was broadcast on RTE and Amazon.
It included shocking claims by a former RUC officer who said the British Army initiated plans for a massacre at a Catholic Primary School in Co Armagh in the 1970s.
John Weir, a self-confessed member of the terror group, said the attack was intended as retaliation for the Kingsmill massacre, in which 10 Protestant workmen were murdered by the IRA.
He claimed that the plot came from military intelligence, the idea being to make the Troubles “spiral out of control”, but it was ultimately a step too far for the UVF’s Belfast leadership.
The Glenanne gang’s murder campaign is being investigated by Operation Kenova, led by former chief constable of Bedfordshire Police Jon Boutcher.
Launching the probe in 2019, Mr Boutcher explained: “[This is about] finding out what, if any, assistance was given to the Glenanne gang by others. That will include whether people turned a blind eye to what was happening.”
What the potential Troubles amnesty means for the investigation remains unclear.
