Billy Wright's father has told a coroner at Downpatrick court that he believes his son's murder was state arranged, state sponsored and state sanctioned. Speaking at the inquest into the LVF leader's death, David Wright said he believed there had been collusion at the highest level.
Strict security was in force at Downpatrick Courthouse when the inquest opened this morning and the jury of five women and three men were sworn in. Billy Wright was gunned down at the Maze Prison in December 1997. Three INLA prisoners, Christopher McWilliams, John Gerard Kennaway and John Fitzgerald Glennon, were all jailed for life after they were convicted of the murder following a two day trial at the same courthouse in Downpatrick last October. The inquest is expected to last two weeks and over forty witnesses are expected to give evidence including prison officers who were on duty at the time. Billy Wright's father, David Wright, will be allowed to cross examine witnesses.
Billy Wright was attacked in a prison van as he waited to be taken to the visitors' centre from a wing shared by LVF and INLA inmates. Following his death, eight Catholics were killed by the LVF and UDA in a four week period. The lapse in prison security also led to calls for a public inquiry from Wright's family and the DUP. Several witnesses at the trial of the three accused told how the men cut a hole in a perimeter fence separating the INLA and LVF sections of the wing and scaled a wall, gaining access to the courtyard where Wright was waiting with another prisoner in the van. Wright's killers singled him out and opened fire before returning to the INLA wing.
Billy Wright was one of the North's most feared paramilitaries. He was given the nickname "King Rat" because of his alleged involvement in a series of vicious sectarian killings in the late 1980s and 1990s. Wright's family and friends have demanded an independent inquiry into how he could have been murdered in a maximum security prison.
