One of Northern Ireland's most notorious paramilitary killers walked free from prison yesterday two years after being jailed for life for the murder of the leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force, Billy Wright, inside the Maze Prison on December 27th, 1997.
INLA man Christopher "Crip" McWilliams said outside the prison that he did not regret murdering Wright, who died in a hail of bullets as he sat inside a prison van on his way to the prison visiting centre.
McWilliams, who was greeted by about 30 people, was freed from Magilligan Prison in Co Derry along with a second member of the murder gang, John Kennaway. The third member of the INLA gang, John Glennon, was released from the same prison on Thursday morning.
McWilliams said that he took no personal satisfaction from killing Wright, who was known as "King Rat", in what he said was an operation mounted by an active service unit of the INLA.
McWilliams, who has spent 17 years in prison, said that he now supported the peace process. "The conditions for armed struggle in Ireland no longer exist," he said. "As an INLA volunteer, I have no regrets, but I want to emphasise that, as an individual, I took no personal satisfaction out of my role to eliminate Billy Wright.
"A decision was taken to eliminate Billy Wright solely because he was the man who had opted to direct from inside Long Kesh a ruthless campaign of slaughter against innocent Catholics.
"Speaking on behalf of the three volunteers at the time charged with conducting that operation, we would fully support anyone's call for the British government or the Southern Government to instigate any inquiry to establish the facts leading to our participation in the operation against Billy Wright."
McWilliams continued: "I am not giving out any specifics of the operation. Billy Wright had a family. He's got a father and children and I am not prepared to go into the gruesome details of the INLA operation.
"Billy Wright was justly deemed an enemy of the nationalist population, but we have always regarded members of his immediate family as being equal victims along with the countless other families who have suffered because of the conflict in our country.
"I have no regrets as an INLA volunteer at the time but, as an individual, I cannot take any personal satisfaction out of it. Billy Wright was the man who chose the road, and when he chose to go down that road of slaughtering innocent Catholics, the INLA was not prepared to sit back and allow their people to be slaughtered.
"The only people who helped in the operation against Billy Wright were the three men who conducted the operation along with the leadership of the INLA. I would be prepared to go back into Long Kesh and do a reconstruction for the likes of Gregory Campbell and [Ian] Paisley junior.
"The minute we breached the fence inside Long Kesh and the minute we had the weapons, nothing was going to save Billy Wright.
"I spent 17 years in prison and, from my experience there, the first time after Christmas is the time for a visit, especially if you are married or involved in a relationship.
"The first thing you do after Christmas is get your wife and children in. We were aware, our intelligence told us, that Billy Wright would take his first visit on December 27th. If not, then the ASU [active service unit] that was on standby that morning knew if we had not got him that morning we were confident of getting him in the first week of the new year."