A public inquiry into the killing of loyalist paramilitary leader, Billy Wright, has begun oral hearings.
When the inquiry opened this morning in Banbridge, a lawyer for the Wright family claimed that thousands of prison files on Billy Wright had been deliberately destroyed or had disappeared.
Alan Kane also strongly criticised the regime inside the now closed Maze Prison.
He claimed it was a prison where paramilitaries reigned supreme. Searching and security had been compromised, he alleged.
Mr Kane claimed this all happened 'at the knowledge, connivance and acquiescence of the upper echelons of the Prison Service and political establishment'.
A lawyer for the tribunal also revealed the difficulties in securing vital documents.
Derek Batchelor, senior counsel for the inquiry, said it had experienced difficulties and delays in obtaining documents, particularly from the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
This was despite the issuing of four formal legal notices requesting the hand-over of information stretching back to November 2005.
Only this month the inquiry had received a substantial volume of papers from the police, Mr Batchelor revealed. There were also gaps in the documentation supplied by prison authorities and the security service, he added.
The chairman of the tribunal, Lord MacLean, also told how relevant material had not always been supplied as fast as possible.
The proceedings are likely to involve hearing evidence from 180 witnesses and the work is expected to be completed within a year.
The oral hearings began with Professor Richard English, an expert in Irish politics from Queen's University, Belfast.
He is due to spend three days in the witness box setting out the political context in Northern Ireland at the time of the murder.
Inquiry set to take one year
37-year-old Wright was shot dead by the INLA inside the former Maze Prison almost ten years ago.
At the time of his murder in December 1997, he led the Loyalist Volunteer Force, which had broken away from the UVF.
The inquiry will examine allegations that the authorities colluded with the INLA gunmen who carried out the killing.
It was one of four controversial murders in Northern Ireland and a double murder of two RUC officers in the Republic which retired Canadian judge Peter Cory said warranted public examination after he had studied the files.
The Wright inquiry was announced in November 2004. It held preliminary hearings two years ago and is expected to take a year to complete.
