SAOIRSE32

Henry McDonald
Observer
7 Dec 2008

Three former associates of Loyalist Volunteer Force founder Billy ‘King Rat’ Wright are boycotting the inquiry into the terrorist leader’s murder inside the Maze prison.

Pastor Kenny McClinton, Jackie Mahood and Alex Kerr could face court sanctions for failing to turn up to the Billy Wright Inquiry.

The public inquiry was set up to investigate the circumstances behind Wright’s assassination on 27 December, 1997, in a prison van in the courtyard of one of the jail’s H-blocks. Two Irish National Liberation Army prisoners, John Kennaway and Christopher McWilliams, shot Wright dead with a gun smuggled into the jail.

The trio are understood to believe that the inquiry will not uncover the truth about the controversial murder. Senior loyalist sources confirmed this weekend that all three had now refused to give testimony to the hearing, which has been sitting for 122 days at Banbridge courthouse.

‘They don’t believe the inquiry will be able to substantiate a widely held belief that the British government played a hand in the murder,’ one loyalist source told The Observer.

The father of Billy Wright, David Wright, issued a statement last month saying that his confidence in the Billy Wright Inquiry had been ’seriously eroded’. This followed the sudden and unexpected departure of the inquiry’s lead counsel, Derek Batchelor in June. Wright said: ‘My confidence has been seriously eroded. It is now up to the inquiry to demonstrate that it will conduct a fearless, independent and effective investigation of the intelligence agencies.’

In a statement, the Billy Wright Inquiry refused to name specifically the trio who had refused to co-operate in it.

Irish News
**Via Newshound
6 Dec 2008

A drunken and angry kick left schoolboy Michael McIlveen defenceless before he was battered in the head with a baseball bat, a court heard yesterday.

The claims were made to police by one of six young Ballymena Protestants facing charges arising out of the murder of the 15-year-old Catholic.

He died in hospital from head injuries on May 8 2006, the day after being beaten in an alleyway in the Co Antrim town.

Antrim Crown Court heard that in his alleged confessions, a crying Jeff Colin Lewis (19), from Rossdale in Ballymena, told how he had been “very drunk, and angry” but was now “sorry; I didn’t mean it to happen to him”.

Michael McIlveen

Ten interviews were read out but, in the first, Lewis – a one-time friend of the victim from “years ago” – initially refused to talk to police, repeating, “no comment” to many of their questions.

He was initially arrested but later released for an attack on a garden gate of a house in Granville Drive which backs on to the alleyway in which Michael was attacked.

By his third interview, by which time Michael’s life-support machine had been turned off, Mr Lewis had named 20-year-old Mervyn Wilson Moon, of Douglas Terrace.

Moon has already pleaded guilty to murder, admitting he was the one who hit the schoolboy “once in the head” with the baseball bat.

Mr Lewis – a one-time apprentice joiner who was born in Glasgow – told detectives that Michael and two friends had run off suddenly from the town’s leisure centre after being accused of turning up “to start for trouble”.

He said a chase had ensued during which he was the first to catch up with them in an alleyway, where he asked Michael: “why did yous run?”

He said Michael “came at me and hit me with something” and they fought before “Mervyn hit him with a bat”.

Mr Lewis then took the bat from Moon and used it to attack the gate, he said.

According to police interviewers, Mr Lewis was showing “remorse, taking it bad, crying”.

He claimed it was during a second “scuffle” with the schoolboy that he punched Michael on “the cheek”.

Mr Lewis finally admitted he had “kicked him in the side, once just”.

By this time Michael was “on the floor, on his back” and Moon came up and “hit him on the head” with the baseball bat.

Mr Lewis, who claimed he may have “cursed”, denied calling the victim and his friends “Fenians or anything”.

Pressed by detectives about his alleged attack, Mr Lewis admitted: “Maybe I hit him more. Maybe I hit him more than once.”

At this stage Mr Lewis was still denying that he had kicked Michael in the head although he did agree that “this was a fight that went wrong between youngsters”.

Police then suggested that it was “time for you to take another one of those deep breaths and spit it out”.

“I can’t remember,” he said before adding: “I thought I kicked him in the side.”

Eventually when asked whether he had knocked out Michael, Mr Lewis allegedly replied: “I don’t know. I don’t know; I did kick him in the head. I think it was once.”

“Did it knock him out?” detectives asked.

“I think so,” Mr Lewis said.

“I think he was trying to talk to me when I kicked him in the head.”

Mr Lewis also allegedly admitted hiding his clothing afterwards “to destroy evidence”.

He repeatedly maintained he was “sorry for what happened; I didn’t mean nothing like this to happen”.

He also agreed with detectives that the attack with the baseball bat “was over the top”.

Mr Lewis also identified three of his co-accused – Christopher Francis Kerr (22) of Carnduff Drive, Aaron Cavana Wallace (20) of Moat Road and Christopher Andrew McLeister (18) of Knockeen Crescent, all Ballymena – from closed-circuit TV images taken from around the town that night.

A 17-year-old – who cannot be named for legal reasons – is also on trial for the murder.

A sixth defendant, Paul Edward David Henson (18) of Condiere Avenue in Ballymena, faces charges of affray and criminal damage.

The trial continues.

Derry Journal
05 December 2008

Dissident republicans who issued death threats to Strabane credit collectors have been branded gangsters.

Death threats were made to Provident Life staff during a the robbery of a female collector by masked men at around 8.30pm on Monday night in the town.

The robbers, claiming to be from the Real IRA, targeted the collector in the Drumallagh estate.

They got into the back of her car and warned her that if the company did not leave the town one of its collectors would be shot dead.

The victim, a part-time collector, was with her younger sister at the time and both women were badly shaken. The latest robbery was the second involving a Provident Life collector recently - a male collector was targeted in the Ballycolman estate almost three weeks ago.

Politicians in Strabane have demanded that the death threats against employees of the company - which has more than 750 clients on its books in the Strabane area - be lifted.

West Tyrone Sinn Fein MP and MLA, Pat Doherty said: “The victims of this obscene and sickening act have been left deeply traumatised and local Provident collectors are now deeply fearful for their safety.

“Whatever flag of convenience those behind these robberies and death threats may wish to ascribe to themselves no-one will be fooled in believing that this is anything other than clear cut gangsterism.”

A PSNI spokesman appealed to local people for assistance. “These are not just offences against individuals or businesses, but against the very fabric of the local community.”

The Irish criminal controlling a racket in human trafficking and organised prostitution gave cash to the Continuity IRA

John Mooney
Times Online
**Via Newshound
7 Dec 2008

A CRIMINAL who controls a racket in human trafficking and organised prostitution, which was exposed last week after an international police inquiry, financed the Continuity IRA (CIRA).

The criminal has paid “substantial” sums to dissident republicans in the past three years, security sources say. Much of the money is said to have been channelled through a paramilitary figure from Monaghan — who was paid “protection money” by the criminal.

The trafficker is still being sought by Irish security services. Two alleged members of his gang were arrested in Wales last week as police raided a dozen brothels in the republic and Northern Ireland.

The two gang members were charged with human trafficking offences at a Welsh court yesterday. The arrests followed an eight-month investigation, codenamed Abbey, involving Interpol, gardai, the Police Service of Northern Ireland and Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency.

The gang’s connections to the CIRA, the armed wing of Republican Sinn Fein, is said to have helped the prostitution business to flourish. In return for cash, the CIRA offered protection against other pimps and gangs.

A senior intelligence officer says that the suspect and his associates first came to their attention after the murder of Paiche Onyemaechi, 25, an African immigrant whose headless body was found near Piltown, in Kilkenny, in July 2004.

The investigation into her murder found that she had worked as a prostitute in Waterford and Kilkenny. Further inquiries disclosed that she had worked for two Carlow men who ran escort agencies in Munster. Gardai believe her killing was unconnected to the vice industry.

According to intelligence gathered by gardai, the two ran a “relatively” small prostitution service, but this developed into a nationwide operation. Brothels and escort agencies were opened in provincial towns.

“The CIRA played a central role in the expansion. At one point, when the main player opened up an escort service in Louth, he was threatened that he would be killed if he did not shut it down. A senior CIRA figure stepped in and protected him,” said another intelligence source.

“Once the CIRA realised it could generate funds by ‘protecting’ the gang, it began demanding more protection money. How much was donated no one knows, but a lot of money was handed over.”

Operation Abbey was launched after gardai found the illegal sex trade was being controlled by organised crime gangs and paramilitary groups that brought women into the country and coerced them into prostitution.

At least one woman told gardai that she was brought to Ireland on the pretence of working in a hotel.

She said she was sexually assaulted on arrival and told she would be working in a brothel. Another woman said the gang’s leader raped her.

After 14 years battling bureaucracy, ex-UDR man triumphs

By Stephen Gordon
Sunday Life
Sunday, 7 December 2008

A former Ulster soldier has won the longest battle of his life — against the military’s top brass For the ex-UDR man from east Belfast has just been awarded a medal for his stalwart services on dangerous patrols at the height of Ulster’s Troubles — 14 YEARS after he first applied for it!

“It’s a great relief,” said the stubborn ex-soldier who blamed “nit-picking” Army chiefs for preventing him receiving the medal sooner.

“It really galls me that it has taken so long to get a medal I was entitled to all along, but I’m glad its over.

“I have to thank (First Minister) Peter Robinson MP who has fought my corner right from the start and who never gave up.”

He also praised NIO Security Minister Paul Goggins who intervened in the case at the request of the first minister.

The ex-part-time soldier — who asked not to be named for security reasons — was one of many UDR veterans who were frustrated in their efforts to receive the Accumulated Campaign Service Medal (ACSM) because their early service records had been destroyed.

The medal is normally awarded to soldiers who have served in 1,080 days of aggregated service in various campaigns from Northern Ireland to Afghanistan. For part-timers who served in the UDR and RIR soldiers, the qualifying criteria is 1,000 days.

But it emerged that the Army’s records on UDR members prior to 1975 had been destroyed.

The east Belfast man, who joined the regiment in 1972 and served for 13 years, said: “When I sent off my medal application, I included letters from my former company commander, platoon commander and warrant officer, all stating that I would have served more than 1,000 (days).”

Those endorsements satisfied local Army medal boards, but the Army’s medals board in London blocked his application saying there was “insufficient evidence” to confirm his entitlement.

The MoD suggested disgruntled soldiers like the east Belfast man obtained their National Insurance contribution records as evidence of service.

But there was shock and dismay when the Inland Revenue in Newcastle Upon Tyne announced it had NO records of Northern Ireland contributions paid for UDR members prior to 1975.

Peter Robinson was one of a number of local MPs who publicly took up the soldiers’ cases which hit the headlines in 2000 and 2001.

The issue rumbled on for years, but last month there was a breakthrough in the case of the east Belfast veteran when Security Minister Paul Goggins wrote to Peter Robinson MP saying his case had been referred to an extraordinary meeting of the Army’s medals board.

And on November 12, the ex-soldier finally received the long-awaited medal from the MoD.

“It’s all been about the principle of the matter — I knew I was entitled to this medal,” said the ex-UDR man, who told how he left his family night after night in the early 1970s to serve in dangerous border areas for a paltry £3.57 per night.

“It’s been a long campaign. But I’ve been one of the lucky ones because I kept plugging away.

“I’m really grateful to Peter Robinson and Paul Goggins. I went to other (Ulster Unionist) politicians, but Peter Robinson was the only one who really did anything — he went into every nook and cranny.

“And I’m grateful to NIO Minister Paul Goggins who took the case right to front door of the medals boards.”

sgordon@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

News Letter
05 December 2008

THE parade to mark the anniversary of the shutting of the gates in Londonderry on Saturday passed off without incident, with organisers hailing it as “an exceptional day”

Police said they were not aware of any reports of any trouble surrounding the event and retailers in the city remained open on what is traditonally one of the busiest shopping days before Christmas.

Around 2,000 marchers and 20 bands steped out for the big day.

Billy Moore, who is General secretary of the Apprentice Boys said the day showed that people could respect each other’s traditions.

“The parade was to mark the 320th anniversary of the shutting of the city’s gates by the 13 apprentices against troops loyal to James the Second on December 7, 1688.”

He said there were a number of other events surrounding the whole day.
“Obviously the first task is to initiate new candidates into the order which can only be done inside the walls of Londonderrry.

“It doesn’t matter where candidates come from, they can only be initiated inside the city.

“Then there is the traditional parade to St Colum’s Cathedral for a Thanksgiving Service.

“Following the service there is a parade to Bishop Street for the burning of an effigy of the siege traitor Lundy.”

It is for this reason that the day is also known as “Lundy’s Day”.
Mr Moore explained the history behind the event.

“He was the governor of the city and basically had no stomach for a fight.

“With the help of some prominent citizens, he escaped, but other governors were appointed and the city was successfully defended, so that’s why he is seen as the siege traitor.

“Therefore an effigy is burned each year as part of the tradition of the Apprentice Boys.”

Mr Moore said he was pleased with the way the day had gone, as in past years there had been trouble at the event.

“It was an exceptionally good day and we were pleased that many of the shops stayed open and we hope that they had a profitable day.

“We asked our members to bring their families and enjoy the Christmas facilities and shopping in the city.

“We believe that it was successful and we are aware that it was a peaceful day, which is the main thing.”

The Apprentice Boys spokesman said he hoped the way the day went was a harbinger for the future.

He said: “We’ve done a lot of hard work to reach accomodation with wider community and we feel that has paid dividends.

“We feel that people have accepted that the Apprentice Boys have their rights to their commemorations, their culture and their traditions in the city.

“That work will continue, but we are seeing the benefit of the efforts of the past years and hope that other people will also continue with their efforts.”

BBC

Nine Northern Ireland farms have used the same contaminated feed which has led to a recall of all pig products processed in the Republic.

Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew said restrictions had been placed on the farms on Friday.

The UK’s Food Standards Agency has said pork from the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland should not be eaten.

Supermarkets in Northern Ireland have been removing pork sourced from across Ireland from their shelves.

In Great Britain, Waitrose said it had withdrawn two lines of sausages sold under Northern Irish celebrity chef Paul Rankin’s brand as a precaution.

Consumers in the UK have not been told to destroy the products, but to wait for the results of further investigation.

The recall started after dioxins were found in slaughtered Irish pigs, thought to have eaten contaminated feed.

Ms Gildernew said restrictions were put in place on Friday night when the situation began to unfold. She said the nine Northern Ireland farms were identified on her department’s electronic monitoring system.

“My officials have been in close contact with their counterparts in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (DAFF) since this situation developed,” she said.

“There is obviously a large amount of north south movement of these products in Ireland and we need to carefully consider the way ahead.”

She added that Northern Ireland’s Health Minisiter Michael McGimpsey was being kept informed of developments.

The recall could have a serious impact on the Northern Ireland pig industry.

BBC Northern Ireland consumer affairs correspondent Martin Cassidy said it was unclear if pig processors would be working as normal on Monday.

“Farmers too are concerned,” he said.

“The contamination issue couldn’t have come at a worse time in the run-up the lucrative Christmas gammon market.”

Following a meeting in Belfast the FSA said it would continue to investigate if any contaminated products had been distributed in the UK.

“From the information that we have at this time, we do not believe there is significant risk to UK consumers as adverse health effects from eating the affected products are only likely if people are exposed to relatively high levels of this contaminant for long periods,” the FSA said.

Tests on the slaughtered Irish pigs showed some pork products contained up to 200 times more dioxins than the recognised safety limit.

Exports

The Irish Minister for Agriculture, Brendan Smith, said the problem was confined to 47 farms in his jurisdiction, including 38 beef farms.

The FSAI said their initial assessment was that there was no risk to beef products, but the farms affected have been isolated and further investigations are ongoing to confirm that.

The Food Safety Authority Ireland’s chief executive Alan Reilly said: “The levels in the feed were very high. The levels in the pork itself were in the region of about 80-200 times above the safe limits.”

The Irish authorities have said contaminated pig meat could have been exported to as many as 25 countries.

Padraig Walshe, president of the Irish Farmers’ Association, described the recall as “an absolute disaster” at an important time of the year for the pig sector.

About 7,000 people are employed in the Republic of Ireland’s pig industry, including about 1,200 on farms.

Almost 500 farmers produce 3.6 million pigs annually, according to the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Agency.

The industry exports approximately 60% of its production and is worth more than 250m euros (£216m) a year.

Pizza

The British Pig Executive said that between April-July this year, the UK imported 230,000 tonnes of pork and bacon, with up to 15,000 of those from the Republic of Ireland.

Bacon, ham, sausages, white pudding and pizzas with ham toppings must be included in the withdrawal of stocks, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland said.

Dioxins are formed during combustion processes, such as waste incineration, and during some industrial processes.

The presence of the dioxin polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) - a substance banned in the Irish Republic since the 1970s - in animal feed and pork samples was confirmed on Saturday afternoon in test results from a UK laboratory.

Chronic long-term exposure to the dioxin can have serious health effects, including causing cancers, but Irish officials said the recall would ensure consumers only had minimum exposure to it.

Cameron pledges to defend the Union as Tories cement alliance at UUP conference

Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
The Observer
Sunday December 7 2008

David Cameron pledged yesterday that as Prime Minister he would defend the Union and said he would want Ulster Unionists in his government.

Addressing the Ulster Unionist party’s annual conference in Belfast, the Conservative leader said: ‘I have never been a Little Englander.’

To wild applause from nearly 700 UUP delegates, Cameron promised that Northern Ireland MPs would soon ‘have a real prospect of holding office as ministers in a Westminster government’. Cameron’s speech, on his third anniversary as Tory leader, consolidated the ties between the Tories and the UUP. The parties will field joint candidates in Northern Ireland at the next European and Westminster elections.

Tory strategists - including former UUP leader David Trimble, now a front bench Tory peer - favour the alliance because it lets Cameron say his party has ‘planted the flag’ throughout the UK.

To allay fears of Dublin and nationalists about a Tory government’s Northern Ireland policy, Cameron said: ‘As Prime Minister, I will always honour Britain’s international obligations. I will continue to work closely and constructively with our nearest neighbours in the Republic of Ireland and I will always uphold the democratic wishes of people here in respect of their constitutional future.’

He added: ‘But I will never be neutral when it comes to expressing my support for the Union. I passionately believe in the Union and the future of whole of the United Kingdom. We’re better off together - England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland - because we all bring our strengths to the mix.’

Although Cameron stressed he supported devolution in Northern Ireland, including the transfer of policing and justice powers to the Assembly, he vowed to end Northern Ireland MPs’ lack of access to office on national questions such as taxation and foreign affairs - on which the Assembly has no power.

‘As things stand, Northern Ireland MPs need to be involved in decisions about their lives that are not devolved. I want the most talented people to form my government and that will mean people from all corners of the UK. Why are there great Ulstermen and women on our television screens, in our boardrooms and in our military but not in our Cabinet? The semi-detached status of Northern Ireland politics needs to end. This is not true representative democracy and it has got to change.’

Cameron described the evolving relationship between the Tories and the UUP as a ‘dynamic new political force’ that would revive democracy in the UK.

At one of the best-attended UUP conferences in years, Cameron said there were no longer any ‘no no-go areas’ in the United Kingdom for the Conservatives.

The Tory leader also paid tribute in his speech to the Irish and American governments for their role in the Northern Ireland peace process.

Backing Cameron’s call for a Tory-Ulster Unionist alliance, Sir Reg Empey, the UUP leader, told the conference he was confident a Conservative government would not be a ‘neutral observer’ of events in Northern Ireland.

‘At a time when the constitutional integrity of the Union and the United Kingdom is being challenged by a variety of regional nationalisms, how fitting that the Ulster Unionists and the Conservatives - the two longest serving parties in the UK as it happens - should again come together to forge a common identity and shared values,’ Empey said.

He added that an alliance would widen unionism’s appeal beyond its traditional base: ‘I want to make a case for the Union which is based on socio-economic and constitutional arguments rather than just background and upbringing.’

Most of the audience at Belfast’s Ramada Hotel appeared to favour the alliance, but some veteran UUP members from working-class constituencies said they opposed it. Chris McGimpsey, a former honorary secretary of the party and a member for 40 years, called it ‘absolute bonkers’.

The left-leaning former councillor for Belfast’s Shankill Road added: ‘It’s an appalling vista and I don’t think the Ulster Unionist party as we have known it will survive. Ulster Unionism has to keep in touch with its roots and we have been doing that lately. We were winning by-elections, we were on the way back. But instead the leadership panics and jumps into the Tory camp.’

By Ashleigh McDonald
Belfast Telegraph
Saturday, 6 December 2008

The UVF conducted an internal investigation into the murders of two Portadown teenagers around the same time the double slaying featured on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme, a court heard yesterday.

Details of the alleged investigation emerged during Crown witness Mark Burcombe’s fifth day in the witness box at Belfast Crown Court.

Mr Burcombe (28) is giving evidence against former friend Steven Leslie Brown, also known as Steven Leslie Revels, who denies murdering Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine.

Andrew (19) and 18-year old David were lured from a house in Tandragee to an isolated country road on the outskirts of the town were they were stabbed to death in the early hours of February 19, 2000.

Mr Burcombe has already told the trial he was present when Andrew and David were murdered but denies involvement.

He told the hearing that prior to talking to the PSNI about the murders in November 2005, he sought advice from a community worker and “Christian man” from Portadown who had contact with loyalist paramilitaries.

Mr Burcombe told the court: “I wanted to know if I gave information to the police would my family be attacked.”

The witness said he learned through this community worker that the UVF had launched an internal investigation and named a senior UVF man based on Belfast’s Shankill Road as heading the investigation.

Mr Burcombe said the community worker also tried to facilitate what he believed was going to be a meeting between himself, Andrew’s mother Anne Robb, David’s father Paul McIlwaine, a CID man, a pastor and a UVF man. He said the meeting was due to take place in a church in Portadown but did not occur.

Mr Burcombe was initially charged with the double killing but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, turned Queen’s evidence and is now giving evidence against former co-accused Brown (28).

At hearing.