Massacre arrests - information
**The two people arrested have been released without charge
Ex UVF boss Mark Haddock may have provided PSNI with information leading to arrest of man and woman quizzed by detectives on UVF murder of six innocent catholics in 1994
by Ciarán Barnes
The former UVF boss Mark Haddock may have provided the information that led to the arrest of two people yesterday in connection with a loyalist massacre at a Co Down pub 12 years ago.
The former Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) commander is understood to be, in the words of a security source, “drip-feeding” information to the PSNI from his hospital bed.
Mr Haddock survived after being shot six times last week by his former paramilitary colleagues.
In return for providing the PSNI with information, he wants relocated to England under a new identity.
A man and a woman were arrested in Belfast yesterday by detectives investigating the Loughinisland murders of June 1994. They are being questioned at Antrim PSNI barracks.
Eamon Byrne, Barney Green, Malcolm Jenkinson, Daniel McCreanor, Patrick O’Hare and Adrian Rogan were murdered by the UVF at the Heights Bar 12 years ago. The six were watching the Republic of Ireland play Italy in a World Cup game when the gunmen struck.
Mr Haddock’s knowledge of the massacre stems from his friendship with a paramilitary, who was a UVF informer and who provided the red Honda Acclaim getaway car. The vehicle was found abandoned on the Listooder Road near Crossgar in Co Down a short time after the murders.
Code-named Mechanic, the Catholic-born man was relocated to England in 1997 and given £10,000 by the RUC after being unmasked by the UVF as an informer.
Before leaving, he revealed to his handlers the location of a hidden UVF arms cache and admitted involvement in an attempt to blow up a Sinn Féin office in Monaghan town in 1997.
Mechanic also confessed to being the organisation’s quartermaster in the Mount Vernon area of north Belfast, where Mr Haddock was boss. Mechanic had responsibility for hiding and providing weapons.
The Loughinisland massacre is expected to feature in a Police Ombudsman report into allegations of collusion between the RUC Special Branch and the Mount Vernon UVF.
Investigators are probing whether detectives turned a blind eye to murders carried out by the gang in return for information on other UVF operations. The report is scheduled to be published in the coming weeks.
SDLP assembly member Margaret Ritchie said the Police Ombudsman’s probe had given new impetus to the Loughinisland investigation.
“It is important at this time to remember that the most important thing is the ongoing search for justice by the families of the victims,” said the South Down assembly member.
Sinn Féin assembly member Caitríona Ruane said those injured or bereaved as a result of the Heights Bar massacre were still on a “quest for the truth”.
A spokesman for Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan said that, although the ombudsman’s office was carrying out a probe specifically into the Loughinisland massacre, this did not mean the murders would not feature in the report on collusion with the Mount Vernon UVF.
