Eddie Fullerton murder
Loyalists ‘told RUC of plan to kill SF member’
click to view - Alex Kerr, left and Eddie Fullerton
Speaking to Daily Ireland yesterday, former UDA prisoners in south Belfast and Co Down named the informant as former UDA commander Alex Kerr.
They also confirmed reports that a second UDA informant, Ned Greer, who was close to the ‘Gravedigger’ - the UDA killer who pulled the trigger on Mr Fullerton – may have also alerted the RUC to the murder plans.
In the years after the controversial murder, both informers fled the North.
Greer was spirited out of his Lisburn home in 1993 by members of the Force Research Unit after he was spotted driving into the British army barracks at Thiepval with a UDA man.
Kerr relocated to England in 1998 having moved to mid-Ulster to set up the Loyalist Volunteer Force with Billy Wright after being expelled from the UDA.
According to former paramilitary colleagues, because of his high-rank as commander of the South Belfast UDA in the early 1990s, he had intimate knowledge of the Fullerton plans.
They also insist Kerr was responsible for alerting the RUC to a murder attempt that led to the arrests of a number of armed Shankill UDA members on Finaghy Road North in west Belfast in 1992.
No one has ever been charged in connection with the murder of Mr Fullerton.
The Sinn Féin councillor was shot dead at his home in Buncrana, Co Donegal, on May 25, 1991.
Although UDA members from Co Derry assisted the killers, the gunman came from the Lisburn area.
After murdering Mr Fullerton, the three loyalist killers drove to Culmore in Co Derry where they burned the getaway car.
A witness claims he then saw the men getting into an unmarked RUC vehicle.
The family of Mr Fullerton believe that authorities on both sides of the Border had a hand in the killing of their relative.
Until contacted by Daily Ireland, they were unaware that Alex Kerr, as well as Ned Greer, may have alerted the RUC about the murder plans.
Mr Fullerton’s son, Albert Fullerton, yesterday said loyalists’ claims that the RUC had prior knowledge about his father’s murder strengthened the case for a public inquiry.
He said: “The UDA had to have assistance from the RUC and Garda to come so deep into Donegal to kill my father.
“He was set up to be murdered by the police, police informants and paramilitaries. That is a fact.
“In the days before the murder, gardai informants were asking my family about my dad’s whereabouts. Immediately after the killing, the murderers were seen getting into an unmarked RUC vehicle in Culmore. And now I’ve learned possibly two loyalist informers tipped the RUC off prior to the murder.”
