BACKGROUND:AS KEN Wilkinson of Families Against Supergrass Trials put it, there was a sense of "time warp" inside and outside Laganside courts in central Belfast yesterday as Mark Haddock "and others" stood trial for murder and a catalogue of other offences.
Mr Wilkinson of the Progressive Unionist Party, which is linked to the UVF, led a small protest outside the court.
And there was indeed a sense of being cast back to the 1980s when Northern Ireland in the courts and on the streets was convulsed by a series of so-called “supergrass” trials, most of which ultimately collapsed.
But listening to prosecution lawyer Gordon Kerr QC outlining the details of the case and hearing the evidence of the first of the “supergrasses”, Robert John Stewart (37), there was also a feeling of throwback to a period when violence was almost as casual as it was cruel.
The court heard how one of the defendants, Alexander “Poco” Wood, was anxious to get the killing of UDA leader Tommy English done on Halloween evening 2000 so he could get home and enjoy a kebab; of how so-called punishment victims allegedly guilty of actions “not morally acceptable” to the UVF were subjected to the grossest of beatings; and of how Robert Stewart, when initiated into the UVF, was told to say he was joining to “shoot Taigs”.
It wasn’t lost on the defendants in the dock that Stewart’s older brother, David (41) who has yet to give evidence, has since turned against his old associates and become a Taig or Catholic.
There are 14 defendants, nine of whom were allegedly involved in Mr English’s killing, but the central figure is Mark Haddock. The first formal words spoken in court yesterday were that this case was against “Mark Haddock and others”.
He sat in the body of the court with two male officers flanking him, five more behind and a female officer also sitting alongside.
As was established by an investigation by former police ombudsman Nuala O’Loan into the police handling of the murder of Raymond McCord jnr he is a serious loyalist figure.
Haddock was a leading member of the UVF gang in Mount Vernon in north Belfast. He was on bail and understood to be based in Britain in advance of the trial. He returned to protective custody at the weekend.
Haddock did not sit in the enclosed dock with the other 13 co-accused, all of whom deny all the charges, because he is now estranged from his former UVF associates. This was after it emerged that he allegedly was an RUC informer – while also actively involved in the UVF, as exposed by O’Loan.
Five years ago he was shot several times but somehow survived. Two of those who allegedly shot him – Darren Moore and Ronald Bowe – were also in the dock, which helps explain why Haddock sat separately.
That case collapsed when Haddock would not give evidence.
Wearing a blue shirt and a tightly cropped beard he appeared in confident form yesterday, giving the thumbs-up sign shortly after he entered the court room. But the first of the Stewart brothers also appeared confident.
Previous “supergrass” trials often have been tense and disorderly affairs, with loud, heart-rending family and paramilitary appeals in court for witnesses to recant, but yesterday for some reason was different; relatively quiet and dignified as the public and the defendants listened to the evidence.
Stewart in the witness stand was cool and composed as he outlined how Tommy English was murdered. There was eye contact between him and the defendants but he delivered his evidence strongly, never faltering. With his neat haircut, sharply tailored olive-coloured woollen suit, his grey silk tie, and perfectly creased white shirt he had the appearance of a man who has moved very far from his old north Belfast UVF comrades.
