A loyalist awaiting trial for the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane has been moved to a jail in England, it was confirmed today.
Mr Ken Barrett, who is due to stand trial in September for the shooting of Mr Finucane in his north Belfast home in February 1989, was transferred on Thursday when a report on the solicitor's controversial killing was released by the Government.
Mr Finucane's family, nationalist politicians and human rights campaigners believe British Army intelligence and members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary colluded in his murder.
Mr Barrett, who was arrested in Sussex last May, has denied killing the solicitor and had been behind bars in Maghaberry Jail in Co Antrim.
However in September, his lawyers had voiced fears during an unsuccessful bail application that their client's life could be in danger at the prison.
A Northern Ireland Office spokesman said today the fact that Mr Barrett was transferred on the day when retired Canadian judge Peter Cory's report on the Finucane murder was published was coincidental.
"Mr Barrett applied last October for a transfer to an English prison for family reasons," he said.
"The application was processed as a matter of routine.
"It was purely coincidental that the date of the transfer coincided with the publication of the Cory Report."
Mr Barrett, who is originally from the loyalist Glencairn estate, was arrested by a team investigating the Finucane murder headed by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens.