Raymond McCord jnr was battered to death on November 9th, 1997. His body was dumped in Ballyduff Quarry in Newtownabbey, north of Belfast. He was so badly beaten he could not be identified by visual means. A key question is how much RUC Special Branch knew about the alleged killer's exploits while he worked for them, writes Gerry Moriarty
His father, Raymond McCord snr, says his son was murdered on the instructions of a senior, notorious UVF figure from north Belfast, an alleged multiple killer who doubled as an RUC informant.
"Raymond was lured to the quarry by the UVF," says Mr McCord, an interesting and obdurate individual. "They spun him a yarn, they told him he was in for a minor punishment shooting, a flesh wound, for a drugs deal he had been involved in that went wrong. Raymond even changed into an old pair of trousers so that his good ones wouldn't be ruined. They tried to shoot him dead in the quarry but their gun jammed. Then they beat him to death."
Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan has been investigating the RUC handling of that murder for more than two years now - an inquiry that broadened to include allegations that the UVF man is implicated in more than a dozen murders, murders committed while he was an RUC Special Branch informant. The critical question in this startling tale of murder, brutality and deception is how much RUC Special Branch knew about this alleged killer's exploits while he worked for them.
This is the crux of the Ombudsman's inquiry: did members of RUC Special Branch during the 1990s collude with this alleged killer, or was he able to carry out his alleged trail of murders through incompetence or genuine oversight?
The inquiry is the biggest investigation ever conducted by the Ombudsman's office, bigger even than the Omagh inquiry which exposed huge police failings into how the 1998 Real IRA bombing investigation was conducted. Her findings this time might be more devastating still.
There is an enormous sensitivity about the inquiry. Mrs O'Loan's eventual report could have major political and security implications. The Ombudsman's office would disclose nothing about the findings to date other than to say that the investigation is in its final stages and will be published in the summer.
The Irish Times, however, has seen a confidential report into the McCord murder compiled by respected human rights body British Irish Rights Watch (BIRW). Titled Getting Away With Murder, it is shocking, and points to another potential scandal that could rock policing in Northern Ireland.
Moreover, former RUC Criminal Investigation Department (CID) senior officer Johnston Brown has backed up the central suspicions of BIRW. Mr Brown, who "ran" the informer before an instruction was issued to hand him over to the control of RUC Special Branch, told this newspaper the UVF figure was involved in at least 10 other murders.
"Of course there were elements in RUC Special Branch who knew what he was doing, but they chose to ignore it. I know the Police Ombudsman is investigating the killings and the allegations of collusion and cover-up, but I don't believe there ever will be a paper trail linking the killer or killings to Special Branch," he said.
Mrs O'Loan may have other views. The test of her work will be whether, if she proves these allegations, former Special Branch officers are made accountable and the UVF man is put away behind bars for life.
The Irish Times was told that all the officers allegedly implicated have left the force.
Raymond McCord snr, who is fearless to the point of recklessness, backs up the claims against the former UVF commander. He is not as doubtful as MrBrown: he believes Mrs O'Loan will expose a security dungheap. "I am confident that will happen."
A 52-year-old Protestant from a loyalist background who will talk (and has talked) to any politician to achieve justice for his son, he has taken his case to Belfast, Dublin, London and Washington. He has also invoked the aid of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams: unusual allies it might seem, but not so. His determination to see his son's killers legally nailed knows no political or geographical boundaries. He was particularly impressed with the Taoiseach:
"He didn't rush you in or out, asked lots of questions, wanted to know the detail; he was the sort of fellow you could have a pint with."
For years Mr McCord was the subject of UDA violence and intimidation. This was because he stood up to one of the North's most feared UDA figures, John "Grugg" Gregg, who wounded and almost succeeded in assassinating Gerry Adams in 1984. It is an unforgiving world in the paramilitary heartlands. Gregg was killed in February 2003 in the bloody feud between his UDA leadership group and Johnny Adair's Lower Shankill UDA C-Company.
"Gregg was picking on a fellow in a toilet in a pub in Rathcoole [ in north Belfast]. I told him to stop but he didn't. So we had a fight and I put him in hospital."
There was retaliation, once involving a gun attack on his life, then a beating by up to 20 UDA members, says Mr McCord. "They broke my legs, one leg was broken in two places. They smashed my eyes, my teeth, my lips. They dropped flagstones on my head. They left me for dead."
He cryptically adds, "For some years after that, some of them fellows found they were getting beaten up themselves by somebody."
He says that for years after the fight with Gregg, he and his family suffered regular UDA harassment and violence. He reckons this may have influenced his son Raymond's becoming involved with the UVF in a "misguided" attempt to build up a protection against the UDA.
He confirms that after joining the UVF Raymond jnr was questioned about the brutal beating to death of taxi-driver Billy Harbinson in May 1997, but released without charge. Mr McCord says his son was not involved but that the killing was actually carried out on the orders of the UVF leader.
Raymond jnr was allegedly killed because of a drugs double-cross. The Irish Times knows this UVF man's name but has decided not to publish it, noting the comment in the BIRW report that it "is not in the business of putting lives at risk and does not want to prejudice anyone's right to a fair trial". He is currently facing another serious charge in court.
The peculiar element of his character is that he sought and finally won bail, even though he might be safer in prison where he would have protection from former UVF confederates and others who want him dead to protect their own skins.
Johnston Brown, in his book published last year, Into the Dark, calls this figure X, a pseudonym we use here as well. Brown described how, when he was in the CID, X also worked as an informant for this division from the 1980s until 1991 when RUC Special Branch handlers took him over.
Brown said that under CID, X was useful and manageable but that under Special Branch he became "vicious and uncontrollable".
According to Mr McCord, his son had ferried drugs for X, who was retaining the proceeds for himself rather than passing the money on to the UVF. Shortly before his murder McCord was discovered by police with a hold-all containing cannabis belonging to the UVF, which led to the loyalist group's Shankill commander - the capo di tutti capi of the organisation - initiating an internal inquiry.
This spooked X, who was in prison at the time, and sealed McCord's fate, says Mr McCord. From jail, X ordered that McCord be murdered before the Shankill commander was informed of his treachery. Another alleged RUC informer was present at the killing. Yet another UVF member, now one of the commanders in north Belfast, who was on weekend parole at the time, was mostly responsible for savagely beating McCord.
Johnston Brown says that X was responsible for several other murders. His first alleged victim was Sharon McKenna, a good Samaritan done to death for helping a Protestant friend. She was a 27-year-old Catholic who was shot dead by two UVF gunmen after she had visited the pensioner, just out of hospital, to cook him dinner.
It is understood that the Ombudsman is examining more than a dozen murders in which X was allegedly involved. Mr Brown has confirmed to The Irish Times eight of the victims' names mentioned in the British Irish Rights Watch report. It is unclear whether all of these names form part of the Ombudsman's investigation but it is understood most of the victims fall within her inquiry.
Mr Brown says that from his time in CID and his dealings with Special Branch, he is certain X was implicated in these eight killings. "There is police intelligence on all of these murders. In fact, X would have boasted to police about some of them."
Raymond McCord says he can confirm those eight and an additional murder victim. He says his knowledge is based on what senior police sources told him and what he was told directly by informed UVF and other loyalist figures who were prepared to confide in him. Both Mr Brown and Mr McCord say X ordered the killings, or was linked or directly involved in them.
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte named in the Dáil last year the victims identified by Mr Brown and Mr McCord, based on what Mr McCord told him.
It's a grim catalogue of murder that runs between January 17th, 1993, when Ms McKenna was murdered, and October 31st, 2000, when former Ulster Democratic Party politician Tommy English was shot dead in the UDA/UVF loyalist feud of that period.
Between these dates Mr Brown and Mr McCord have linked X to: the murders of Catholics Gary Convie and Eamon Fox, shot dead at a building site on May 17th, 1994; Protestant Thomas Sheppard, shot dead as an alleged informer on March 21st, 1996; the death on March 24th, 1997, of Protestant clergyman Rev David Templeton, after he was brutally beaten six weeks earlier; Protestant Billy Harbinson, allegedly a police informer, handcuffed, beaten and left to die on the Shore Road, Belfast, on May 18th, 1997; and the murder of Raymond McCord jnr on November 9th, 1997.
Mr McCord says X was also implicated in the murder of David Greer, shot dead on October 28th, 2000, during the loyalist feud.
Mr Brown says the monumental tragedy is that most if not all of those killings could have been avoided if he had not been frustrated and effectively manacled by the Special Branch detectives, some of them senior, who said X's purported value as an agent must not be compromised.
"As far back as 1993 I could have arrested and convicted X and the rest of his UVF gang," he insists.
He says he genuinely can't understand what motivated the Special Branch detectives allegedly involved. "They were a disgrace to the force. Some of them were Walter Mittys, they saw themselves as OO7-types. I think when you analyse it down, it was a power thing."
This story has taken its toll on Mr Brown and his family. Retired now, he is generally seen as a Lundy, a traitor, by some of his former colleagues and even some unionists.
But he can walk tall. He's the cop who put Johnny Adair away for directing terrorism. He's the officer who got UDA man Ken Barrett to admit on tape that he shot Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, despite again facing opposition from some in Special Branch.
The legacy he wants from all this is a force that is accountable and acceptable to the bulk of unionists and nationalists. "You can't work outside the box. There has to be ethics, morals, to policing."
Raymond McCord, who has been fighting this battle for about eight years, wants X "to spend so long in jail that he dies there", and some former Special Branch officers to join him behind bars. "After that I can get on with my life."
The Ombudsman's inquiry, which is truly shocking in terms of the depth and scale of the allegations, has been running for more than two years.
A preliminary report on Mrs O'Loan's findings was sent at the start of the year to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Alasdair Fraser. There is a developing security and political tension about what her final report will reveal, a sense that it will be even more contentious than the Omagh document, that it will have far-reaching and possibly very damaging consequences.