There is growing suspicion that Mark Haddock, the Special Branch UVF agent involved in up to 10 murders, was paid by MI5.
Haddock received almost £80,000 during his years as an informer, even securing a 60% pay rise after he murdered Catholic good Samaritan, Sharon McKenna, who was shot dead while cooking dinner for a sick Protestant pensioner.
Outrage that Haddock and his associates were allowed to kill at will has so far focused solely on Special Branch. Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, has insisted that safeguards are now in place within his force to ensure no such scenario could recur.
However, if the UVF Mount Vernon OC was on MI5's payroll, it raises serious questions about British intelligence and its enhanced role in the North which comes into force later this year. MI5 is due to take over primacy in intelligence policing – monitoring paramilitary suspects and running agents – from the PSNI.
SDLP leader, Mark Durkan, said he deeply suspected that MI5 had paid Haddock's wages. "These are the most serious allegations possible. Mark Haddock was paid at least £79,840 during the period that he murdered at least 10 people.
"So far the story has been presented as if MI5 knew nothing of this. But he who pays the piper calls the tune. If MI5 was paying Haddock then they too were at the heart of this collusion," Durkan said.
It is understood that ex-Special Branch officers, angry that they have taken all the flak over the Haddock murders, could leak details of MI5's involvement and payments to the agent.
Meanwhile, the Sunday Tribune has learned that Nuala O'Loan, wants to stay on as Police Ombudsman after her seven-year contract expires at the end of this year.
O'Loan was appointed in 2000 but is said to be "hugely committed to continuing her work". Nationalist sources fear the British government could replace her with a malleable retired judge or unionist politician who would not pursue collusion and other issues anywhere near as forcefully.
However, retaining O'Loan would require legislative changes as the current law limits the Ombudsman's term of office, and there is concern that any changes would then entitle a future incumbent, less rigorous in their work than O'Loan, to also remain in position.
It has been disclosed that the ombudsman's report into the activities of Special Branch agents in the Mount Vernon UVF was conducted on a tiny budget. O'Loan had asked the British government for substantial additional funding but was refused.
Sources told the Sunday Tribune that the ombudsman's office had requested a seven-figure sum to conduct the inquiry which lasted four years and required a 15-strong investigative team. However, O'Loan received only a fraction of what she asked for - £250,000.
The sources said this was "a very small sum" for such a large inquiry, and financial constraints had meant the investigation took considerably longer than the ombudsman had hoped.
