A former RUC officer who caught UFF killer Ken Barrett admitting Pat Finucane's murder on tape 12 years ago, has questioned how many more people were killed because the self-confessed murderer was allowed to go free.
Detectives from the Stevens team were last night (Wednesday) continuing to question Barrett about the 1989 murder of the Belfast solicitor.
But former CID officer Johnston Brown, who obtained a taped confession of Barrett admitting his role in the killing, last night questioned why he had not been allowed to pursue the case against the self-confessed killer.
Barrett (40) and his common-law wife, aged 45, were arrested by detectives from the Stevens inquiry in Sussex yesterday morning.
Barrett's wife was questioned at a police station in Sussex, but Barrett was flown back to Northern Ireland.
A spokesman for the Stevens' team last night confirmed that Barrett was being questioned about the murder of Mr Finucane and other matters but refused to state why the 40-year-old loyalist was being questioned in Northern Ireland.
Barrett's wife was last night released from custody, pending papers being submitted to the Director for Public Prosecutions.
But it is still unclear what new evidence, if any, has been uncovered which could lead to a successful prosecution for the 14-year-old murder.
Police in the north and the Stevens team have officially known for 12 years of Barrett's taped confession.
In October 1991 Barrett admitted to two CID officers and a member of RUC Special Branch that he had been one of the two UFF gunmen who murdered the solicitor.
Barrett was unaware that the conversation was being secretly recorded.
CID officers Johnston Brown and Trevor McIlwrath were confident that the tape could be used to force Barrett to confess to the murder during proper questioning. But inexplicably Special Branch ordered Brown and McIlwrath not to pursue the case against Barrett.
When the Stevens team subsequently went looking for the tape it had gone missing and has never been found.
Johnston Brown last night questioned how many innocent people died because no effort was made to charge the self-confessed killer with murder 13 years ago.
"I am convinced that, had we not been obstructed by Special Branch, we could have brought this case (Pat Finucane's murder) to a satisfactory conclusion," he said.
"While the tape itself was inadmissible in court, it could have been used to pressurise Barrett to confess during proper questioning.
"But we were warned off the case and we will never know just how many other innocent people died because the decision was taken to let Barrett go."
