A top loyalist turned Special Branch agent was cleared today of trying to kill a nightclub bouncer.
But ex-Ulster Volunteer Force commander Mark Haddock (37) was found guilty of grievous bodily harm with intent for his part in a hatchet-and-hammer assault on Trevor Gowdy outside a social club in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, in December 2002.
Haddock, who is at the centre of a major Police Ombudsman inquiry into collusion between loyalist murderers and rogue Special Branch officers, was also convicted of false imprisonment and an arson attack on the victim's car.
