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William Stobie
William Alfred Stobie was an RUC Special Branch agent and UDA quartermaster who lived in North Belfast. He is most noted for his statement that he had passed on information to the RUC prior to the murder of Pat Finucane, and that he had provided enough details to possibly prevent the killing and to arrest people who still possessed the weapons after the killing, but that the RUC failed to act on that information.
Stobie had been a Special Branch informer from 1988 but had been moved to work as the UDA 'C' company's quartermaster in the early 1990s.
In 1990 he was tried for possession of arms, but was released after a police blunder in the witness box. The charges were dropped in 1991, and a not guilty verdict recorded.
In 1994, a leading Loyalist shot Stobie four times while he was in an entry to the Lower Shankill. The man and his accomplice were scared off when an elderly woman appeared in the entry.
Following the shooting, in which he was seriously wounded, Stobie led a relatively quiet life, and was a security guard until the late 1990s. He refused to flee Northern Ireland, and lived with his partner, Lorraine, in a flat on the Forthriver Road, in the Glencairn area of Belfast.
On 22 June 1999, after the Stevens Inquiry was set up, Stobie was re-arrested and was this time charged with Finucane's murder. He denied the charged but admitted being a police informer at the time of the murder, and said that he had given the Special Branch enough information to prevent the Finucane killing.
The trial was fraught with problems: journalist Ed Moloney refused to hand over notes made during a crucial 1990 interview with Stobie, and there were question marks over the state of the key witness, Neil Mullholland.
In the end, the former journalist and NIO Press Officer was not called, due to psychiatrists' concerns that giving evidence may have adverse affects on his mental health, and Stobie was acquitted in November 2001. Upon his release Stobie said publicly that an independent inquiry into the Finucane killing was necessary.
He again stayed on the Forthriver Road, despite fears for his life. He claimed to have received from the UDA's Johnny Adair a promise that his life was not in danger, due to a promise he made not to talk about the UDA/UFF or its members.
But he was mistaken, and at about 6.30am 12 December 2001, he was shot dead outside his flat, while preparing to take his partner to work. The Red Hand Defenders claimed responsibility for Stobie's killing.
Political leaders and human rights groups were angry at the killing, as was the Finucane family. They said in a statement that, had a full public inquiry been in place, Mr Stobie could have been protected from this fate.
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