Loyalist paramilitary boss Billy Wright abandoned a plot to kidnap and kill three Catholic priests because he feared the IRA would abduct Protestant churchmen in retaliation, a court heard today.
Belfast Crown Court heard today that Wright - aka King Rat - had planned to seize the priests in Gilford, Co Down the night before taxi driver Mr Michael McGoldrick was shot dead at the height of the 1996 Drumcree standoff.
Former freelance journalist, Mr Nick Martin-Clark, told the court of the plan based on an interview he did with one of Wright's closest associates, Clifford McKeown, who denies the charge.
McKeown is on trial for the murder of Mr McGoldrick on July 7th, 1996.
Mr Martin-Clark told the fifth day of the trial today, that McKeown told him he had met with Wright and his associate Mark "Swinger" Fulton on the night before the murder to discuss Wright's plan.
"They were going to leave one priest behind to tell everybody what had happened but then apparently Billy Wright got cold feet. He thought that the IRA would kidnap Protestant churchmen in retaliation.
"He felt the risk was too great so he abandoned the original plan," he added.
The following day, he said, they decided to use the same team brought together for the kidnapping plot, to kill a Catholic taxi driver.
Mr Martin-Clark said he froze when McKeown allegedly gave chilling details of how he shot Mr McGoldrick dead.
He said when he asked McKeown who had killed Mr McGoldrick, he replied: "You are looking at him."
"I didn't write the words down because the intensity of the moment was such, my pen was suspended," he told Belfast Crown Court.
Mr McGoldrick, a 37-year-old father of two, was lured to an isolated road in July 7th, 1996 and shot five times at close range as tensions spilled over during the Drumcree protest in the run up to the 12th of July march down the Garvaghy Road in Portadown.
Mr Martin-Clark met McKeown (43) from Parkmore, in Craigavon, on five occasions at Maghaberry Prison, Co Antrim in the summer of 1999.
He told the court that he was later paid £7,500 for an article in The Sunday Timesbut said McKeown had not been offered any money for his story.
He then made a statement to police, who sought an order forcing him to hand over his notebooks.
Mr Martin-Clark said that during the interviews, McKeown had told him that the killing was a birthday present for Billy Wright.
The court heard that McKeown also told him that Wright had planned to have two people killed on the night of the taxi driver's death.
Mr Martin-Clark, who suffers from ME, spoke haltingly as he described the account allegedly given by McKeown.
"He told me there were four people involved, two of them were young men who needed to be blooded and he didn't give me their names. The other two were him and Tony McNeill," he told the court.
McKeown allegedly told him Mc Neill had phoned for a taxi to pick up a fare at an entertainment complex in Lurgan, using a Catholic name to avoid arousing suspicion.
The destination was to be a public house in Aghagallon a few miles from the town. McNeill allegedly then called a public phone box in nearby Aghalee, giving McKeown the message "the parcel's on its way".
According to Mr Martin-Clark, the passenger - one of the inexperienced youths - asked Mr McGoldrick to stop by the side of the road to pick up his friend. McKeown allegedly followed with his car lights switched off.
One of the two passengers then asked Mr McGoldrick to stop by the side of the road to let him urinate.
As the youth got out of the front passenger seat, McKeown allegedly slipped into the back of the taxi, shooting Mr McGoldrick four times in the back of the head in rapid succession.
"He said he delivered four shots altogether to the back of the head and then he said he shot a fifth time, a last shot into the back of his neck.
"I asked him why and he said "it was to finish the job," added the former journalist.
He said when he asked McKeown why he had used a .22 pistol, he told him it was because they "weren't messy".
"He said all three of them jumped into Clifford McKeown's car and went to join up with Tony McNeill's car which was parked a little bit further up the road," he added.
Mr Martin-Clark said he and another journalist Ms Lynn Solomon had asked for the meeting with McKeown, telling the prison authorities they were researchers for British Labour MP Mr Jeremy Corbyn.
He said he told McKeown that they were also journalists. "We had heard he was ill, also that he was a talker and we both knew anyway that if he chose to, he would have a lot to say about loyalist paramilitary activity.
"We thought that it was possible that he was going to die and that maybe he would open up and tell us a lot about all sorts of things," he said.
During the first meeting in June 1999, McKeown allegedly told them he had been sentenced to death by the UVF for murdering Mr McGoldrick but denied any part in the killing.
McKeown told him he had been arrested and questioned about the murder along with his girlfriend Ms Liz Gibson in October 1996.
During the interview, he alleged McKeown said police officers had said it was a pity he had not shot the radio operator at the taxi firm, who they said was the brother of a leading republican.
"The police made a comment to him when he was being questioned, about it being a shame that Damien Duffy hadn't been the victim rather than Michael McGoldrick.
"Damien Duffy was a brother of Colin Duffy who was an IRA man."
During the second meeting on July 7th, 1999 Ms Solomon decided she didn't want to see McKeown again so he went alone. He said McKeown told him to check the relevance of the date.
"I said it was the date of the McGoldrick murder and he was pleased that I had paid attention.
"He said that date was also Billy Wright's birthday and he said that the murder of Michael McGoldrick had been a birthday present for Billy Wright."
The next day, he asked McKeown if Billy Wright's close associate Mark "Swinger" Fulton had carried out the murder.
"He said to me 'do you want to know who did McGoldrick?' He made me say that I wouldn't tell anybody. He said 'you are looking at him'."
The trial continues tomorrow.
PA