Murky world of a loyalist killer

BBC Northern Ireland security editor Brian Rowan looks at the background of Ken Barrett, the loyalist paramilitary convicted of the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989.

Inside Northern Ireland's paramilitary underworld there is a saying: "Whatever you say, say nothing".

It means no "loose talk" - keep quiet, shut up, saying nothing that can be picked up by listening ears - say nothing that will take you into court.

Ken Barrett was secretly filmed by BBC Panorama

But it was advice that Ken Barrett, 41, ignored and he, like another loyalist terrorist Johnny Adair, said too much - and he like Adair was caught in an undercover police operation.

Belfast-born Barrett grew up in the loyalist Shankill Road area of the city.

And his conversations - boasting and bragging about his paramilitary exploits - were recorded, not just by officers attached to the Stevens investigation team, but by the BBC Panorama reporter John Ware.

Adair was a very open terrorist - someone who relished attention and publicity, an underworld figure who liked the public stage.

Barrett was different - yes a member of the same loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Association, as Adair, but by no means as well known.

His name came into the public domain after the murder of another loyalist - William Stobie - who inside the UDA was a so-called quartermaster, a keeper of guns, and someone who also worked for the police special branch.

Stobie was charged with aiding and abetting the Pat Finucane murder.

The case collapsed and days later he was dead - shot by the UDA in December 2001 because of what he knew about others, shot because of what he knew about the Finucane killing.

Pat Finucane was shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries

The paramilitaries were also worried about Barrett. There were suspicions about him - was he too on the books of the "branch"?

Graffiti appeared on the walls of the Shankill - the capital of loyalist Ulster - branding him a "tout".

Inside the world of the paramilitaries there is no worse crime - a crime punishable by death - and Barrett read the writing on the wall.

He knew that if he stayed, he too like Stobie would end up dead.

And, it was while he was on the run from his one-time paramilitary associates, that Barrett was secretly recorded by the Panorama team in 2002 and by officers from the Stevens investigation.

He ignored the advice: "Whatever you say, say nothing", said far too much and was charged with the Finucane killing.

On Monday he pleaded guilty to the murder, and on Thursday was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

There are senior loyalist and intelligence figures who still say that Barrett was not one of the gunmen. Yes, he was part of the "murder team", but not one of those who pulled the trigger.

Graffiti against Barrett appeared on the walls of the Shankill

Because the Finucane killing pre-dates the Good Friday Agreement, Barrett can apply to the Sentence Review Commission for early release and is unlikely to serve a lengthy period in jail.

But because he knows the reality of the paramilitary world, he will now have to spend his life hiding from those he once associated with, and from those who would now seek to kill him.

Many of the loyalists who are suspected of involvement in the Finucane murder also worked for the security forces - Barrett, Stobie, Brian Nelson and the one-time UDA "brigadier" Tommy Lyttle.

There are others who cannot be named for legal reasons.

But for those who are demanding a public inquiry into the killing, these men are mere "puppets" and the bigger question is: who was pulling their strings?

That is the truth that the Finucane family is searching for - the truth they hope will eventually come out when the inquiry recommended by the Canadian Judge Peter Cory is put in place.