A loyalist accused of murdering the Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane was alleged in court yesterday to have admitted shooting him, in a conversation recorded by an undercover police officer.
The claim was made during a bail application by Mr Ken Barrett (40), the Belfast man brought back from England last May to be charged with killing the solicitor in 1989. Opposing the application in the High Court in Belfast, Mr Gordon Kerr QC referred to conversations recorded in a covert operation while Mr Barrett was living in England after fleeing Belfast due to death threats.
Mr Kerr said an undercover officer known as Steve asked him about the Finucane murder, and he said: "It wasn't the first occasion I done it. It was just that he got so much publicity because he was a republican solicitor.
"He was an IRA man and all that. He was in the media and, to be honest. Steve, he believed he could not be touched.
"He hadn't really got shot. He got f****** massacred. He was hit 22 times. I have to be honest I whacked a few people in the past. People say to me how do you sleep. I sleep fine."
Mr Kerr said a police officer named Brown had been in contact with Mr Barrett, who offered his services as an informer for money.
He said Mr Barrett told Brown he was the military commander in west Belfast and that "hypothetically he had shot Mr Finucane".
Mr Barrett had described a number of details suggesting a detailed knowledge of the offence. His lawyer, Mr Peter Irvine, said the alleged admissions would be challenged at Mr Barrett's trial.
After a short adjournment Mr Justice Kerr refused bail.