British Army spy camera film at UVF murder scene wiped, inquest hears

» Peadar Whelan

Notorious loyalist killer and suspected British agent Billy Wright was one of six loyalists arrested after gloves and masks were thrown from a Ford Sierra car. All six were released after questioning

UNDERCOVER British Army units were filming houses in County Tyrone where pensioner Roseann Mallon was cut down in a hail of UVF bullets on 8 May 1994, an inquest heard this week – but the evidence was erased.

The inquest into the loyalist killing of the 76-year-old got under way in Belfast on Monday 4 November after numerous delays.

Ms Mallon, from Dungannon, was shot dead as she watched TV at her sister-in-law’s home.

The inquest was told that high-definition British Army surveillance cameras were trained on the house where Ms Mallon was killed. According to Barry McDonald QC, representing the Mallon family, the tapes from these cameras were wiped clean.

Former RUC Detective Chief Inspector Kenneth McFarland revealed that he only became aware of the cameras two months after the shooting.

He told the inquest that he requested information from RUC Special Branch but they told him they had nothing that could assist the investigation.

The inquest was also told how the RUC tried to pressurise a 10-year-old boy into changing a statement he made about seeing military equipment near the Mallons’ Cullenrammer Road home two days before the attack.

Giving evidence, Gareth Loughran recounted how he and a friend, Barry Rafferty, had come across a number of rifles and military-type rucksacks in an old mill close to where Ms Mallon was shot dead. A man in military uniform told the boys to leave.

This was on Saturday 7 May – the day before the killing.

Prior to the shooting on Sunday 8 May, Loughran gave a statement to the RUC at the local barracks.

The day after the killing, on Monday 9 May, two detectives arrived at the Loughran home and questioned Gareth, forcing him to make a second statement saying that he lied about what he saw in the mill.

His mother, Sheila, likened the questioning to an interrogation.

The inquest also heard that notorious loyalist killer and suspected British agent Billy Wright was one of six loyalists arrested just hours after the killing.

Wright and two others were in one car while the other three were arrested after gloves and masks were thrown from a Ford Sierra car.

All six were released after questioning.

The hearing continues.