Mac Lochlainn vows to name ‘Person K’ linked to Greysteel and Fullerton murders

In a significant intervention in the Dáil, Sinn Féin TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn has signaled his intent to use Dáil privilege to name a suspected 'British military agent’ he believes oversaw the murder of Eddie Fullerton and the Greysteel massacre in the early 1990s.

The Buncrana-based TD referred to the murder of his neighbour and predecessor as a public representative for Donegal at his home in Cockhill on May 25, 1991.

Deputy Mac Lochlainn highlighted the case of 'Person K', an individual identified in the Police Ombudsman’s Operation Greenwich report as an ex-UDR member and a key figure in the UDA/UFF during the early 1990s.

This was erstwhile Police Ombudsman Marie Anderson’s landmark report on a series of loyalist murders in the North West between 1989 and 1992.

It revealed ‘Person K’ was arrested and questioned about several loyalist atrocities including the murders of Robert Dalrymple, James Kelly, James McKenna, and Noel O’Kane in Castlerock on March 25, 1993, and the murders of Moira Duddy, Joseph McDermott, James Moore, John Moyne, Karen Thompson, John Burns, Steven Mullan and Samuel Montgomery in the Greysteel attack on October 30, 1993.

On Wednesday Deputy Mac Lochlainn told the Dáil: “It is absolutely clear now that British military agents were directly involved in the assassination of Councillor Eddie Fullerton. At least two British military agents would have killed Eddie and I believe another was present in the operation.”

The Buncrana-based TD raised Operation Greenwich during a debate on Operation Kenova, the investigation into the activities of Freddie Scappaticci, codenamed ‘Stakeknife’, the British Army agent who operated within the IRA in the 1980s and 1990s.

Deputy MacLochlainn said he wanted to raise the report and the case of ‘Person K’.

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"I am clear that I may name him in this place at some stage. Person K was a British military agent who was overseeing the operation where Councillor Eddie Fullerton was assassinated.

"He oversaw the murders of 17 people and the attempted murders of seven,” he said.

Whilst claiming ‘Person K’ was a British military agent Deputy Mac Lochlainn said he believed ‘he went solo’ at Greysteel.

"He totally oversaw the operation. We have a situation where the man who drove the car named Person K.

"The man who gave the weapons to the RUC afterwards named Person K. Person K's fingerprints were on the weapons used in the Greysteel massacre, yet Person K was never charged because Person K was a British military agent. Even after the Greysteel massacre, he was not dealt with,” he said.

Deputy Mac Lochlainn was referring to an arms dump uncovered at Ballygudden Road in Eglinton on November 3, 1993.

It contained a VZ58 Czech-manufactured assault rifle similar to the Soviet Kalashnikov AK-47 that was part of a combined loyalist importation by the UDA, UVF and Ulster Resistance in 1987

‘Person K’s’ fingerprints were found on a white bin bag in a holdall containing the VZ58 and other guns and ammunition.

Operation Greenwich reported: “The holdall contained three boiler suits, eight shotgun cartridges, and a VZ58 assault rifle loaded with a single round of 7.62mm ammunition.

"They also recovered a sawn-off 12 bore shotgun loaded with two cartridges, a Browning 9mm pistol loaded with a 9mm round in the ejection port and six rounds in the magazine, three black woollen masks, three pairs of rubber gloves, a Guinness baseball cap, a pair of green gloves, and numerous magazines and assorted ammunition. The white bin bag contained a packet of rubber gloves.”

Two fingerprints found on the white bin bag belonged to ‘Person K,’ the Ombudsman found.

‘Person K’ was arrested on November 12, 1993, but ‘continued to deny any involvement in the attack and provided an explanation as to how his fingerprints were on the white bin bag’.

He was released without charge the next day.

Deputy Mac Lochlainn told the Dáil how files had been passed to the PSNI in 2016.

“Ten years later, I want to know what the PSNI has done about the actions of Person K. Some day, I will name Person K in this Chamber. I challenge the Minister to get those answers. How did this man get away with all of that?” he asked.

Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan responded: “Deputy Mac Lochlainn referred to the outrageous murder of Eddie Fullerton, who was an elected politician. We need to remember as well that other politicians such as Robert Bradford and Billy Fox were also murdered.”

Mr. O’Callaghan was referred to the IRA murders of Fine Gael Senator Billy Fox in Monaghan in 1974 and the Limavady-born UUP MP Robert Bradford in 1981.

Among the revelations of Operation Greenwich were that Eddie Fullerton was not warned by the RUC of a threat to his life despite his details having been discovered in a loyalist dossier in 1989.

The loyalist intelligence was unearthed when a man linked to the UDA/UFF in Derry was arrested after he was spotted acting suspiciously near the home of a republican in Derry.

“Most of the documentation was of military origin, including army intelligence reports. Other material had been obtained from newspaper articles and other sources in the public domain. None of the recovered documentation originated from the RUC,” Ms. Anderson reported four years ago.

Ms. Anderson also found all of ‘the VZ58 assault rifles linked by police to the Greysteel murders and the other UDA/UFF killings between 1989-1993 had been ‘recovered by the RUC and destroyed’.

It is known a Smith and Wesson revolver used in the murder of Eddie Fullerton had been stolen from the home of a former police officer in Garvagh in February 1988.

A discharged cartridge case discovered in the holdall recovered on the Ballygudden Road in November 1993 was traced by forensics to this gun.

‘Person K’ was interviewed by the PSNI in 2009. He told officers he had been previously questioned about the murder and continued to deny involvement.

In December 2021, a man was arrested in Muff, but subsequently released without charge.