A loyalist murderer responsible for one of Northern Ireland's worst terrorist outrages was a police agent, it was claimed today.
Loyalist killer Torrens Knight was shielded by Special Branch before he massacred eight people at Greysteel, Co Derry, SDLP Assembly member John Dallat has been told.
Allegations that a rifle later used in the atrocity was moved before officers could recover it are being examined by the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan.
Mr Dallat said a Royal Irish Regiment (RIR) soldier had backed up his concerns.
He said: "In recent weeks a serving member of the RIR telephoned me to say the guns were moved by a member of the Special Branch who was protecting the identity of Knight, who was a double agent.
"He went on to claim that one of the guns was used at Greysteel, while the whereabouts of the other is unknown. "His knowledge of the event clearly indicates that his call is genuine."
Knight (36) was part of an Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) team behind the horrific attack on the Rising Sun bar on Halloween, 1993.
Gunmen walked into the packed pub, shouted "trick or treat" and opened fire. By the time they had finished 19 people were wounded. Eight died from their injuries, seven of them Catholics.
Knight was jailed for life for those murders and the killing of four Catholic workmen in Castlerock, Co Derry, seven months earlier.
He was released from the Maze prison in July 2000 under the terms of the Belfast Agreement and is believed to have moved to England.
Mr Dallat, who has been studying the case for years, has disclosed new details of a weapons find he was told of between the attacks in Castlerock and Greysteel.
"I have waited a long time for this investigation and I hope the investigation team are successful in gleaning why so many innocent people lost their lives and why the UFF ran amok for so long before finally being caught," he said.