Wright Killing Probe Branded 'Scandal'

The death of loyalist killer Billy Wright inside the former Maze prison has been slammed as a scandal.

DUP MP for Upper Bann, David Simpson said: "The murder of any person in the custody of the state is a failure of its duty of care.

"Regardless of what Billy Wright may have done in his life, that it should have been snuffed out whilst he was a prisoner in HMP Maze is a scandalous turn of events," he said last night.

Mr Simpson was commenting after the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Owen Paterson, said he was "sincerely sorry" for the death of Billy Wright when he was presenting a report to the House of Commons yesterday.

The DUP politician said Mr Paterson was keen to emphasise the point that there was "no collusion in the murder of Billy Wright" between the agencies of the State and those who cut him down.

"This might have something to do with the way in which collusion was defined in the report.

"The facts as established presently will lead people to draw very different conclusions from Owen Paterson," the MP said.

"The fact that it has been impossible to establish how firearms were smuggled in to what was supposed to be a maximum security prison undermines the credibility of this entire report.

"The Northern Ireland public are also expected to accept that a series of events occurred before and on 27th December 1997 to make it easier for Billy Wright's murderers to carry out their plot entirely coincidently.

"A litany of events from non-communicated threats, guns smuggled in, fences cut, CCTV cameras not working and people’s name being announced stretches coincidence to breaking point," he continued.

"Mr Wright's murder was allowed to happen, beyond the already acknowledged failings of the senior management of the Prison Service," said the DUP MP.

In Westminster yesterday, Mr Paterson admitted that "some actions did…..facilitate his death".

He said the report detailed a number of serious failings prior to the death.

"The panel is clear that, where failings are identified, these were the result of negligence rather than intentional acts," he insisted.

Overall, the panel identified "a serious failure on the part of [the Northern Ireland Prison Service] and its Chief Executive to deal with recognised management problems in HMP Maze in 1997," the Secretary of State said.

He also said that the panel made a number of conclusions relating to intelligence received prior to Billy Wright's death, in particular, the RUC's failure to communicate a key piece of intelligence.

"These are serious and profound failings," he told fellow MPs.

"Whatever horrendous crimes Billy Wright or the LVF committed, his murder in a high-security prison should never have happened.

"It was wrong and I am sincerely sorry that failings in the system facilitated his murder."

(BMcC/KMcA)