Distretto Nord

Fermento nella UVF: un brigadiere diventa informatore?

UVF turmoil as ex-‘brigadier’ ‘prepares to turn supergrass’

Collusion is not an illusion. It's a State murderGary Haggarty (37), of no fixed abode, appeared at Belfast’s Magistrate’s Court yesterday charged with the May 1997 murder of John Harbinson.

Mr Harbinson died after being handcuffed to railings on the Mount Vernon estate in north Belfast and beaten to death by a UVF gang.

It is understood that Haggarty was arrested by appointment at a police station on Tuesday.

There was a heavy police presence in court yesterday but there were no loyalists present to support the former UVF brigadier as he appeared in the dock.

The senior loyalist refused legal representation despite being warned by magistrate Fiona Bagnall that he was facing a serious murder charge and that she “strongly advised’’ him to find a solicitor.

“I’m happy enough,” he said.

Haggarty made no attempt to apply for bail and was remanded in custody.

Haggarty is the most senior loyalist yet to appear in court in connection with the Historic Enquiries Team (HET) investigation into the Mount Vernon UVF.

Last month former Mount Vernon UVF leader Mark Haddock also appeared in court charged with Mr Harbinson’s murder.

At that hearing a PSNI detective admitted that no forensic evidence would be used in the case.

Haddock and 11 other members of the Mount Vernon UVF have already been charged with the murder of UDA leader Tommy English in 2000 on evidence of two Newtownabbey brothers who turned supergrass against their former colleagues.

Robert John Stewart (35), from Carntall Rise, and David Stewart (39), from Ballyearl Rise, were each given mandatory life sentences at Belfast Crown Court for aiding and abetting in the murder Mr English.

However, it is understood they will serve only a short term behind bars in exchange for giving evidence against a dozen members of the Mount Vernon UVF.

Now senior UVF sources have admitted there are serious concerns within the organisation over fears that Haggarty may also be preparing to turn supergrass.

In January 2007 a report by Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan revealed that Haddock and other leading members of the UVF in north Belfast were protected from prosecution in more than a dozen murders because they were working as Special Branch agents.

Mrs O’Loan’s report uncovered evidence that Haddock and another informer were protected by Special Branch despite involvement in the February 1994 murder of Catholic man Sean McParland and the murder of Mr Harbinson.

Within days of the McParland murder Haddock had admitted to police that he had been involved in the killing, while Haggarty had been named to police as the killer.

Both men were arrested but later released without charge.

Mrs O’Loan would later reveal that the RUC had failed to arrest three other members of the murder gang “due to accommodation and manpower shortages”.

The ombudsman concluded that Special Branch’s decision to continue to employ Haddock and Haggarty as informers despite overwhelming evidence of their involvement in multiple murders was “indicative of collusion’’.

Mark HaddockSoon after the killing Haddock was made commander of Mount Vernon UVF while Haggarty was made the UVF’s north Belfast ‘brigadier’.

The ombudsman’s later reported that the two men, senior UVF figures involved in the murder of Mr Harbinson, had been police informants.

Again she expressed concern that Special Branch had continued to use them as informers despite “a wealth of information implicating them in punishment shootings, beatings, and murders over previous years”.

Mrs O’Loan found a catalogue of serious failings in the police investigation into the taxi driver’s murder.

RUC investigators had failed to request forensic scientists to examine tape-lift evidence recovered from the murder scene.

A glove and two metal bars used in the attack went missing from police custody, while all of the dead man’s clothes and the handcuffs that the gang had used to chain him to the fence were destroyed by police within weeks as they were judged to be “health hazards’’.

In contrast, the suspected killers’ clothes were all returned to them within weeks.

Mrs O’Loan found that both CID and Special Branch had been given the names of the killers within hours of the attack.

One police officer had phoned Haddock on the morning after the attack but was told that he was drunk in bed. He was not arrested until seven days later.

Special Branch also had information that the main murder suspects were hiding out at a house at Ballyhalbert in Co Down but no effort was made to arrest them.

Mrs O’Loan reported that potentially vital forensic evidence was lost by the failure to arrest the main suspects despite Special Branch knowledge of where they were hiding.

It later emerged that two main suspects identified in the murder of Mr Harbinson were never arrested.

The Police Ombudsman would later conclude that Special Branch continued use the two informers, despite that overwhelming evidence of their involvement in murder was “indicative of collusion’’.

“Special Branch colluded with the murderers of Mr Harbinson by concealing information received following the murder, and by continuing to employ the two informants after the murder,” she said.

“Given the serious failings in the original investigation and the destruction and loss of exhibits, there appears little chance of any successful re-investigation, unless all potential witness evidence is fully exploited.”

A Prison Spokeswoman was last night unable to say if Haggarty would now being held in protective custody alongside Mark Haddock.

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René Querin

Di professione grafico e web designer, sono appassionato di trekking e innamorato dell'Irlanda e della sua storia. Insieme ad Andrea Varacalli ho creato e gestisco Les Enfants Terribles.

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