Haddock to have risk assessment

The alleged informer is serving a 10-year sentence

A loyalist at the centre of an alleged police collusion case is to undergo a risk assessment to decide whether he qualifies for home leave from prison.

Mark Haddock from Mount Vernon in Belfast, was jailed for 10 years in 2006 for an attack on a nightclub doorman.

Haddock, who is preparing to have his name changed, is seeking a ban on the media reporting his new identity.

The application was adjourned for two months at the High Court on Thursday.

Haddock's lawyer told the same court earlier this week that his client was under imminent threat of death.

Amid claims that he is under imminent death threat, he wants an interim injunction to stop publication of any future address of him and his partner, photos of the pair and any change of identity and appearance.

Legal representatives for media organisations resisting the move urged Mr Justice Weatherup to dismiss the application after hearing that a decision on whether to grant parole had been deferred.

Haddock, who was previously named in court as a leading member of the Ulster Volunteer Force, survived a murder bid in 2006. He was shot up to six times in Newtownabbey, County Antrim, while out on bail.