William Stobie's former associates in the Ulster Defence Association were today being blamed for his murder.
Even though they had assured him he would come to no harm, Northern Ireland Special Branch had warned him last week that his name was on a death list.
It was claimed today he had also been given categorical assurances by the UDA in the notorious Lower Shankill area of Belfast that he would not be harmed.
But within an hour of Mr Stobie being gunned down outside his flat in north Belfast, an associate said: "He was living in fear of loyalists and that something might happen. I have no doubt that the UDA were responsible."
As a quartermaster for the Ulster Defence Association and a police agent, 51-year-old William Stobie was thrust into the limelight in 1999 when he was charged in connection with the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.
The shooting dead of Mr Finucane was one of Northern Ireland's most controversial killings. The solicitor had represented several IRA terror suspects successfully.
He was gunned down in his north Belfast home in front of his wife and children on February 12th 1989. He was shot 14 times.
The murder was the focus of allegations that members of the security forces had colluded with loyalist paramilitaries - prompting several human rights groups and a United Nations team to carry out investigations.
In 1999, detailed allegations of collusion passed to the British government led to the reopening of an investigation by a Metropolitan Police team led by Commissioner Sir John Stevens.
The role of the British military intelligence group, the Forces Research Unit (FRU), which handled agents inside Northern Ireland's paramilitaries, concerned some campaigners for a Finucane inquiry.
However, after the arrest of Mr Stobie by the Stevens team, it emerged in court he was a police agent who had passed on information about loyalist paramilitary activity before and after the Finucane killing, which some believed could have prevented the solicitor's death.
PA