Foul play ruled out in death of Mark Fulton

Police in the North have ruled out foul play in the death of Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) leader Mark Fulton.

Fulton was found dead in his cell in Maghaberry Prison, near Belfast, on Monday. According to security sources 42-year-old associate of murdered loyalist Billy Wright took his own life.

Billy Wright (L) and Mark Fulton at Drumcree in 1996

A PSNI spokesman said today results of a post mortem carried out on Monday night confirmed police investigations that foul play was not involved. A second independent post mortem was carried out yesterday, at the family's request.

The spokesman added that police investigations would continue to establish a full picture of the events surrounding the death.

Fulton was released from prison in March last year but by Christmas was back in custody again, accused of conspiracy to murder in a case related to the loyalist feud. It is believed he was suffering from depression.

Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor, adds:Fulton came to public prominence when in 1996 he swaggered side-by-side with Billy Wright around the hill at Drumcree. Two tattooed men, they both cut very menacing figures at the scene.

It was that year that the RUC chief constable Sir Hugh Annesley felt that such was the loyalist threat that he had no option but to sanction the Orange parade being forced down Garvaghy Road. The murder of Lurgan Catholic taxi-driver Michael McGoldrick added to that sense of threat.

But it was in the 1980s and early to mid-1990s that Fulton initially made his mark, first as a UVF and later as an LVF paramilitary.

In 1990 and early 1991 the mid-Ulster brigade of the UVF, of which Fulton was a leading member, is estimated to have murdered 12 people around the area of Lough Neagh.

Attacks included the killing of four Catholic men in a bar in Cappagh, Co Tyrone in March 1991. The same month two Catholic teenage girls and a man were murdered at a mobile shop in Craigavon.

While it is unclear whether Fulton was directly involved in these killings it is certain that with Wright he was a central figure in the UVF as it conducted a reign of terror in mid-Ulster.