A man arrested on Wednesday by the Stevens team investigating the killing of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane was last night charged with murdering Mr Finucance in 1989. He is due to appear at Belfast Magistrates Court today.
Mr Finucane was shot dead before his family as they sat down to Sunday lunch at their north Belfast home on February 12th, 1989. It quickly became one of the most notorious murders of the Troubles amid allegations of collusion between the loyalist paramilitaries who carried out the killing and the security forces.
Mr Barrett (40), a senior Shankill Road UDA member, fled Northern Ireland for England in December 2001.
Last year, Mr Barrett was secretly filmed by the BBC's Panorama programme as he told reporter John Ware of links between loyalist murder gangs and the intelligence agencies.
He was detained in the south of England by the Stevens team, supported by Sussex police and the Police Service of Northern Ireland along with a 45-year-old woman, thought to be his partner.
He was returned to Northern Ireland on Wednesday for questioning under the Terrorism Act 2000.
He has been charged with the Finucane murder and what Scotland Yard referred to last night as "other matters".
These include the attempted murder of Thomas McCreery on January 17th, 1991, and the attempted murder of Elizabeth McEvoy on January 17th, 1991; membership of the Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Freedom Fighters on or before May 29th, 2003 contrary to Section 21 of the Northern Ireland Emergency Provisions Act 1978; the theft of two SA80 rifles with sights, two empty magazines and two Browning pistols with two empty magazines on January 31st, 1989 at the 7/10 Ulster Defence Regiment Armoury Malone Barracks in Belfast.
He is also accused of handling stolen goods including 11 9mm Browning pistols, two 7.62 light machine guns, two signal weapons, one .38 Smith and Wesson revolver, two air rifles and a quantity of ammunition on August 25th, 1987.