A loyalist assassin-turned police informer who admitted gunning down Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane could be back on the streets within months, it emerged tonight.
Ken Barrett's guilty plea for one of the most controversial killings in three decades of bloodshed in Northern Ireland intensified pressure on the British government to hold a public inquiry based on overwhelming evidence that police and military intelligence colluded in the February 1989 shooting.
Barrett, who is being held in isolation for his own safety at Maghaberry Prison near Lisburn, Co Antrim, will be told on Friday how long he must serve of a mandatory life sentence.
But because the shooting was carried out before the April 1998 Belfast Agreement, he may be eligible for release as early as next May if he guarantees to stay away from all paramilitary involvement.
With former associates enraged by his work for police Special Branch, he is set to begin a new life overseas as soon as he gets out.
The ex-UDA commander's frenzied lust for murder was exposed during a dramatic hour-long hearing at Belfast Crown Court.
Barrett, who admitted a dozen paramilitary crimes, was trapped in an audacious undercover operation mounted by detectives from Scotland Yard Chief Sir John Stevens' team examining the collusion.
They posed as international drug dealers, hired him as a chauffeur and lulled into believing they needed a hit-man while importing cannabis and cocaine into England.
In a secretly taped conversation with the policemen he admitted "whacking" Mr Finucane because he claimed the lawyer was a republican and an IRA man.
"I lose no sleep over it. He was responsible for taking a lot of people out of the game," he said.
"All is fair in love and war. He was a good target."
Despite Barrett's claims, Sir John has categorically denied the solicitor was linked in any way to the IRA.
It was his fanatical devotion to murder and the pleasure he took in later boasting of his chilling acts that stunned the courtroom.
Gordon Kerr QC, prosecuting revealed evidence from retired RUC Sergeant Johnston "Jonty" Brown who claims he first gained a confession from Barrett.
After telling the detective how he fired repeatedly at Mr Finucane's head, he said: "You never tire of doing this, Jonty."
Mr Kerr added: "He said he killed Mr Finucane so quickly that he still had a fork in his hand as he was lying on the floor."
Barrett was one of two gunmen who broke into Mr Finucane's north Belfast home and shot him 14 times in front of his wife Geraldine and their three children.
Two years later he turned special branch informant after being stripped of his UDA post for stealing money raised through racketeering.
Barrett, from north Belfast, was arrested in London in May last year and brought back to Northern Ireland.
He just nodded in court when asked to confirm his identity. But when a dozen charges, including Mr Finucane's murder, were put to him, he replied quietly: "Guilty."