A convicted loyalist killer has sensationally claimed RUC detectives urged
him to murder Catholic human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson.
Trevor McKeown, 41, said two rogue officers gave him details of where
Rosemary parked her car.
He said the approach came while he was being quizzed in custody about the
LVF murder of 18-year-old Catholic Bernadette Martin in 1997. McKeown said:
"They made it clear they wanted me to shoot Nelson. But I said nothing."
He was jailed for life for the murder of Bernadette, but protested his
innocence to the News of the World this week.
Mum-of-three Rosemary, who represented leading republicans in court, was
murdered on March 15, 1999. She died when the Loyalist Volunteer Force
planted a bomb under her car in Lurgan, Co Armagh.
Loyalist lifer Trevor McKeown has described how rogue RUC cops directed him
to the spot where Rosemary Nelson parked her car - and urged him to shoot
her there.
McKeown, 41, claimed two detectives asked him to kill the human rights
lawyer while he was being quizzed over the murder of Bernadette Martin.
He said: "They wanted me to shoot Nelson. They made that clear. I didn't
agree with them that she should be killed and just said nothing.
"But it seemed clear they wanted a response or that they wanted me to pass
the info on to other loyalists.
"I have always maintained that police then fitted me up for Bernadette
Martin's murder.
"I admit I am no angel and have been involved in my fair share of pub rows
and in robberies 20 years ago. But I didn't murder that girl."
A senior security source said last night that McKeown's claims will cause a
huge outcry.
Exactly 20 months after the alleged incident in July 1997, Mrs Nelson died
from horrific injuries suffered when the Loyalist Volunteer Force planted a
booby-trap bomb under her car in Lurgan, Co Armagh.
The Red Hand Defenders, a cover-name for the LVF in mid-Ulster, claimed
responsibility.
Since her death there have been persistent allegations of security force
collusion in the murder, which is now the subject of three major
investigations. McKeown said that after the approach in custody he was
charged with the murder of teenager Bernadette.
He protested his innocence this week to the News of the World in his first
ever interview.
Ironically, McKeown's trial for murdering Bernadette, who was shot dead in
Aghalee as she slept beside her Protestant boyfriend, started the day
Rosemary Nelson was murdered on March 15 1999.
McKeown has been refused early release under the Good Friday Agreement
alongside some other prisoners convicted of Loyalist Volunteer Force
killings. He rejects claims he is too dangerous to be released and maintains
he will soon prove he is innocent.
McKeown is the first loyalist to testify that policemen wanted the human
rights lawyer dead because she represented leading republicans in court.
Speaking inside Maghaberry Prison, he said: "When I was arrested a detective
said to me, 'You shouldn't have killed that 18-year-old girl but Rosemary
Nelson instead. He said it would be easy for me or other loyalists to shoot
her there.
"Another detective was sitting in the room and just sat there as if he
agreed while the first detective was telling me he wanted Rosemary Nelson
dead. That was made clear to me."
During one of several conversations with the News of the World, McKeown
claimed the two detectives, whom he named but can't be identified here for
legal reasons, put the murder proposal to him before he was charged with the
sectarian murder.
His solicitor was told at that time to log what the first detective
allegedly said about Mrs Nelson.
The allegation of security force collusion in the killing is because of
40-year-old Mrs Nelson's role as solicitor for the nationalist Garvaghy Road
Residents' Coalition, which opposes the Drumcree Orange march, and her part
in other high profile cases.
She successfully represented prominent Lurgan republican Colin Duffy, who
had charges against him of murdering two policemen in June 1997, dropped.
They were the last police officers to die before the Provos renewed their
truce.
McKeown claimed it was just months after their two colleagues were murdered
by the IRA while on the beat in Lurgan that the police said Mrs Nelson
should be killed.
He added: "They wanted her dead for what she did. But these killings have
been senseless. The murder of Bernadette Martin was horrific and shouldn't
have happened and I will maintain to the day I die that I didn't do it."
Three inquiries into events surrounding her death have been or are being
carried out. One is by government-appointed retired Canadian judge Peter
Cory, another by English police officers and a third by Police Ombudsman
Nuala O'Loan, whose office has looked into the police handling of death
threats against Mrs Nelson.
Several loyalists, including a handful of ex-security force members, have
been arrested for questioning about the murder over the past four years, but
no-one has been charged in connection with the killing.
The Police Ombudsman's report on police handling of death threats against
Rosemary Nelson before her death was due to be published last year. But it
was put back after the Committee on the Administration on Justice was
granted a judicial review of the investigation.
Following Mrs Nelson's murder, then RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan
denied his force had information that her life was in danger.
