A public inquiry into the murder of loyalist prisoner Billy Wright 13 years ago has found there was no state collusion in his killing.
However, today’s report identified a number of serious failings on the part of Northern Ireland's Prison Service.
Billy Wright was shot dead by three republican prisoners at the Maze Prison in December 1997.
The public inquiry into whether he was the victim of collusion by state authorities lasted five years and cost £30m.
The inquiry was established following the recommendation of a judge that there was sufficient evidence of collusion to warrant a public inquiry.
Its report, published today, runs to almost 700-pages but its conclusions on its central purpose is clear - there is no evidence of collusive acts on the part of the state.
However, the panel headed by the Right Honourable Lord MacLean found that there were serious and profound failings, which although unintentional, did facilitate Mr Wright's murder.
The inquiry levelled serious criticism against the prison authorities in Northern Ireland over the management and running of the Maze prison at the time of Wright's death.
Among the wrongful omissions identified was the decision to allocate Billy Wright and the LVF faction to H Block 6 in April 1997 alongside the INLA prisoners.
The inquiry also described as negligent rather than intentional the failure by the RUC to communicate a key piece of intelligence prior to Mr Wright's death.
Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson told the House of Commons today that Billy Wright's murder in a high security prison 'should never have happened.'
'It was wrong and I am sincerely sorry that failings in the system facilitated his murder,' he added.
The report also said a review of the Northern Ireland prison service should be launched.
Billy Wright's father David disputed the finding that there had been no state collusion in his son's death and said the evidence uncovered suggested otherwise.
The 37-year-old from Portadown, Co Armagh, was the leader of paramilitary splinter group the Loyalist Volunteer Force.
He was ambushed inside the jail complex by armed INLA prisoners who managed to evade security and open fire.
The murder, on 12 December 1997, threatened to disrupt the tense all-party political negotiations in the months before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement the following year.
Opponent of peace process
Billy Wright, nicknamed King Rat, was one of the most feared loyalist paramilitaries in the Portadown and Lurgan areas between the mid-1980s and his death in 1997.
He was born in 1960 in Wolverhampton, West Midlands. His parents separated when he was a child and he moved to Northern Ireland with his four sisters.
The children were put into care and Wright, separated from his sisters, was brought up in a largely nationalist area of south Armagh.
He socialised with Catholics and played Gaelic football.
But with the conflict at its height several relatives were killed by republicans in the 1970s.
In 1976, not long after ten Protestant workers were murdered by the IRA in the Kingsmill Massacre, Wright joined the youth wing of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
He was arrested and in 1977 jailed for six years for arms offences. Wright only served just over half his sentence and was released in 1980.
He married Thelma Corrigan, had two daughters and worked as an insurance salesman in Portadown.
Wright also claimed to have become a born-again Christian and spent time preaching. Despite this he was arrested for UVF involvement several times. He eventually became the UVF's mid-Ulster commander and is thought to have ordered or participated in around 20 killings.
He opposed the peace process, the Good Friday Agreement and was sceptical of the IRA ceasefire.
Expelled from the UVF, Billy Wright set up his own gang called the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF).
He was arrested in January 1997 and jailed two months later for eight years following an incident in Portadown.
Wright was initially sent to Maghaberry prison but in April was transferred to the Maze and put on his own wing with a number of other LVF men.
On 27 December 1997 he was led out to a van for a visit with his girlfriend but was shot dead by three INLA men.
