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Wednesday, September 22, 1999 Published at 18:40 GMT 19:40 UK


UK: Northern Ireland

New evidence 'makes murder inquiry essential'

Billy Wright, LVF leader, murdered by the INLA

New information is to surface which will make a public inquiry into the murder of a loyalist paramilitary leader in Northern Ireland essential, it has been claimed.

David Wright, the father of Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) leader Billy Wright, said he would make the details of the information public in the coming days.

He was speaking before a meeting with the province's Northern Ireland Security Minister Adam Ingram at Stormont.

Billy Wright was shot dead by the republican Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in the Maze Prison in December 1997.


[ image: Wright formed the LVF after the UVF declared its ceasefire]
Wright formed the LVF after the UVF declared its ceasefire
He was serving an eight year sentence when the attack was mounted as he sat in the back of a prison van.

Wright's father has always contended the murder was "state arranged, state sponsored and state sanctioned".

Now he has said he has received information from within the prison service, which reveals that authorities in the Maze had overlooked something, which if it had been addressed, could have prevented his son's killing.

"This information, which will surface within 48 hours, completely throws this whole murder of my son where it belongs - in the public domain, as to why the detail was ignored, who allowed it to be ignored and for what reason was it ignored.

"Now hopefully, there are men of conscience out there."

Inquest findings 'not enough'

He claimed his son was a " political roadblock" to the situation in Northern Ireland, going back to 1995.

Mr Wright was joined at the meeting by Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble.

An inquest into Billy Wright's killing earlier this year, concluded it had been carried out by three INLA men in an elaborate pre-meditated and pre-planned attack.

However, the inquest's conclusions have never been enough for David Wright.

He has already travelled to Dublin for discussions with the government in the republic about his son's death.



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