Robin Jackson

He was first arrested on 8 November 1973 for the killing on 28 October of Patrick Campbell, a Catholic trade unionist from Banbridge who was gunned down on his doorstep. Jackson's words after he was charged with the killing were: "Nothing. I just can't believe it".[30] Campbell's wife, Margaret had opened the door to the gunman and his accomplice when they had come looking for her husband. She had got a good look at the two men, who drove off in a Ford Cortina after the shooting, and although she identified Jackson as the killer at an identity parade, murder charges against him were dropped on 4 January 1974 at Belfast Magistrates' Court.[30][3]

The charges were allegedly withdrawn because the RUC thought Mrs. Campbell knew him beforehand. Jackson confirmed this, saying that they had met previously on account that he worked in the same Banbridge shoe factory (Down Shoes Ltd.) as Patrick Campbell.[31][15] It was suggested in David McKittrick's Lost Lives that sometime before the shooting there may have been a "minor political disagreement" between Jackson and Campbell while the two men were on a night out.[15] The disagreement was allegedly over the stoppage of machinery following the deaths of three British soldiers.[32] Raymond Murray, in his book The SAS in Ireland, suggested that his accomplice in the shooting was Wesley Somerville.[4] Irish writer and journalist Hugh Jordan also maintains this allegation.[10]

When the RUC had searched Jackson's house after his arrest they discovered 49 additional bullets to those allotted a serving member of the UDR. A notebook was also found which contained personal details of over two dozen individuals including their car registration numbers.[33]

RUC Special Patrol Group officer John Weir claimed to have first met Jackson in 1974 at Norman's Bar, in Moira, County Down.[34] [35] Weir stated in an affidavit that Jackson was one of those who had planned and carried out the Dublin car bombings.[36] According to Weir, Jackson, along with the main organiser Billy Hanna and Davy Payne (UDA, Belfast), led one of the two UVF units that bombed Dublin on 17 May 1974 in three separate explosions, resulting in the deaths of 26 people, including two infant girls. Close to 300 others were injured in the blasts; many of them maimed and scarred for life.[37][n 1][38] Journalist Peter Taylor affirmed that the Dublin car bombings were carried out by two UVF units, one from Mid-Ulster, the other from Belfast.[38]

The bombings took place on the third day of the Ulster Workers Council Strike, which was a general strike in Northern Ireland called by hardline unionists in protest against the Sunningdale Agreement and the Northern Ireland Assembly which had proposed their sharing political power with nationalists in an Executive that also planned a greater role for the Republic of Ireland in the governance of Northern Ireland. In 2003, Weir's information was published in the Barron Report, which was the findings of an official investigation into the bombings by Irish Supreme Court Justice Henry Barron.[39] Justice Barron concluded Weir's "evidence overall is credible".[40] An article by Paul Foot in Private Eye also implicated Jackson in the bombings.[8]

The producers of the 1993 Yorkshire Television documentary, The Hidden Hand: The Forgotten Massacre, referred to Jackson indirectly as one of the bombers. However, three of his alleged accomplices, Hanna, Harris Boyle, and Robert McConnell were directly named.[41] Although the incriminating evidence against Jackson had comprised eight hours of recorded testimony which came from one of his purported chief accomplices in the bombings, the programme did not name him directly during the transmission as the station did not want to risk an accusation of libel.[9][3] The programme's narrator instead referred to him as "the Jackal". Hanna, Boyle, and McConnell were deceased at the time of the programme's airing.

According to submissions received by Mr. Justice Barron, on the morning of 17 May 1974, the day of the bombings, Jackson collected the three bombs and placed them onto his poultry lorry at James Mitchell's farm in Glenanne, which had been used for the construction and storage of the devices.[42] [43][44] He then drove across the border to Dublin, crossing the Boyne River at Oldbridge. The route had been well-rehearsed over the previous months. Hanna, then the Mid-Ulster UVF's commander and the principal organiser of the attacks, accompanied him.[45] At the Coachman's Inn pub carpark on the Swords Road near Dublin Airport, the two men met up with the other members of the UVF bombing team.[46] Jackson and Hanna subsequently transferred the bombs from his lorry into the boots of three allocated cars, which had been hijacked and stolen that morning in Belfast. The Hidden Hand producers named William "Frenchie" Marchant of the UVF's A Coy, 1st Battalion Belfast Brigade, as having been on a Garda list of suspects as the organiser of the hijackings in Belfast on the morning of the bombings. The cars, after being obtained by the gang of hijackers, known as "Freddie and the Dreamers", were driven from Belfast across the border to the carpark, retaining their original registration numbers.[47]

Journalist Joe Tiernan suggested that the bombs were activated by Hanna.[45] Sometime before 4.00 p.m., Jackson and Hanna headed back to Northern Ireland in the poultry lorry after the latter had given the final instructions to the drivers of the car bombs.[48] Upon their return, Jackson and Hanna went back to the soup kitchen they were running at a Mourneville, Lurgan bingo hall. With the UWC strike in its third day, it was extremely difficult for people throughout Northern Ireland to obtain necessities such as food. Neither man's absence had been noticed by the other helpers.[49]

Following Hanna's orders, the three car bombs (two of them escorted by a "scout" [lead] car, to be used for the bombers' escape back across the Northern Ireland border) were driven into the city centre of Dublin where they detonated in Parnell Street, Talbot Street and South Leinster Street, almost simultaneously at approximately 5.30 pm. No warnings were given. From the available forensic evidence derived from material traces at the scene, the bombs are believed to have contained, as their main tertiary explosive a gelignite containing ammonium nitrate, packed into the usual metallic beer barrel container used by loyalists in prior car bombings.[50] Twenty-three people were killed outright in the blasts, including a pregnant woman and her unborn child; three more people would later die of their injuries. The bodies of the dead were mostly unrecognisable. One girl who had been near the epicentre of the Talbot Street explosion was decapitated; only her platform boots provided a clue to her gender.[51]

The bombers immediately fled from the destruction they had wrought in central Dublin in the two scout cars and made their way north using the "smuggler's route" of minor and back roads, crossing the border near Hackballs Cross, County Louth at about 7.30 pm.[45] Thirty minutes earlier in Monaghan, an additional seven people were killed instantly or fatally injured by a fourth car bomb which had been delivered by a team from the Mid-Ulster UVF's Portadown unit.[5] According to Joe Tiernan, this attack was carried out to draw the Gardaí away from the border, enabling the Dublin bombers to cross back into Northern Ireland undetected.[45]

Jackson was questioned following the Yorkshire Television programme and he denied any involvement in the Dublin attacks.[52] His name had appeared on a Garda list of suspects for the bombings.[53] Hanna's name was on both the Garda and the RUC's list of suspects; however, neither of the two men were ever arrested or interrogated in connection with the bombings. The submissions made to the Barron Inquiry also stated that one week before the Dublin attacks, Jackson and others had been stopped at a Garda checkpoint at Hackballs Cross.[47]

Nobody was ever convicted of the car bombings. Years later, British journalist Peter Taylor in an interview with Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) politician and former senior Belfast UVF member David Ervine questioned him about UVF motives for the 1974 Dublin attacks. Ervine replied they [UVF] were "returning the serve". Ervine, although he had not participated in the bombings, explained that the UVF had wanted the Catholics across the border in the Republic of Ireland to suffer as Protestants in Northern Ireland had suffered on account of the intensive bombing campaign waged by the Provisional IRA.[54] On 28 May 1974, 11 days after the bombings, the UWC strike ended with the collapse of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the power-sharing Executive.[55]

Statements made by John Weir affirmed Jackson's active participation in the killing of senior IRA member John Francis Green in Mullyash, near Castleblayney, County Monaghan.[56] On the evening of 10 January 1975, gunmen kicked down the front door of the "safe" house Green was staying in and, finding him alone in the living room, immediately opened fire, shooting him six times in the head at close range. The bullets all entered from the front, which indicated that Green had been facing his killers.[57] The UVF claimed responsibility for the killing in the June 1975 edition of its publication, Combat.[57] Green's killing occurred during an IRA ceasefire, which had been declared the previous month.

Ulster Volunteer Force mural. Robin Jackson led the UVF's Mid-Ulster Brigade from 1975 to the early 1990s.

Subsequent to his alleged killing of Hanna outside his home in Lurgan in the early hours of 27 July 1975, Jackson assumed command of the Mid-Ulster Brigade.[58][59][16][60][61][62][63] Hanna and his wife Ann had just returned from a function at the local British Legion Club. When he stepped out of the car, Jackson and another man approached him. After asking them "What are you playing at?" Jackson produced a pistol, walked over, and shot him twice in the head; once in the temple and afterwards in the back of the head, execution-style as he lay on the ground. His wife witnessed the killing.[10][64]

Joe Tiernan suggested that Jackson killed Hanna on account of the latter's refusal to participate in the Miami Showband killings. Hanna apparently suffered from remorse following the 1974 Dublin bombings, as he is believed by Tiernan to have instructed one of the bombers, David Alexander Mulholland to drive the car which exploded in Parnell Street, where two infant girls were among those killed.[65] According to Tiernan and the Barron Report, Mulholland was identified by three eyewitnesses. Tiernan also suggested that Hanna and Mulholland became informers for the Gardaí regarding the car bombings in exchange for immunity from prosecution. He added that although the British Army was aware of this, Jackson was never told, as it was feared he would decide to become an informer himself.[66]

Investigative journalist Paul Larkin, in his book A Very British Jihad: collusion, conspiracy, and cover-up in Northern Ireland maintained that Jackson, accompanied by Harris Boyle, had shot Hanna after learning that he had passed on information regarding the Dublin bombings.[67] Martin Dillon also claims this in The Trigger Men.[68] Dillon also stated in The Dirty War that because a number of UDR/UVF men were to be used for the planned Miami Showband attack, the UVF considered Hanna to have been a "security risk", and therefore it had been necessary to kill him.[69] David McKittrick in Lost Lives, however, suggested that Jackson had actually killed Hanna in order to obtain a cache of weapons the latter held.[70]

The UVF drew its greatest strength as well as the organisation's most ruthless members from its Mid-Ulster Brigade according to Irish journalist Brendan O'Brien.[17]

Site of the Miami Showband killings which occurred on 31 July 1975. Jackson was implicated in this attack which left three band members and two UVF men dead

Jackson was also alleged by Kevin Dowling,[3] Joe Tiernan,[45] and the Pat Finucane Centre[13] to have led the UVF gang that carried out the Miami Showband ambush and massacre at Buskhill, outside Newry on 31 July 1975, which left band members Brian McCoy, Fran O'Toole and Tony Geraghty dead. Two others, Stephen Travers and Des McAlea, were wounded. Journalist Hugh Jordan also confirmed Jackson's presence at the Miami Showband ambush.[10] Harris Boyle and Wesley Somerville, both suspects in the Dublin bombings,[36] and members of both the UDR and Mid-Ulster UVF, were accidentally blown up as they placed a bomb under the driver's seat of the band's minibus which had been parked in a lay-by. The minibus, driven by trumpeter Brian McCoy (a Protestant from Caledon, County Tyrone), had been flagged-down by UVF men wearing British Army uniforms at a bogus roadside military checkpoint on the main A1 road as the band was returning home to Dublin after a performance in Banbridge. Following the premature detonation, which ripped the vehicle in half, the band members were then gunned down by the surviving UVF men.[71]

Loyalist paramilitarism researcher Jeanne Griffin suggested that Jackson had planned the ambush as a means to eliminate Brian McCoy who had strong family connections to the Orange Order and the security forces. According to Griffin's theory, Jackson had on an earlier date, approached McCoy with a proposal to secure his help in carrying out UVF attacks in the Irish Republic. When McCoy refused, Jackson saw this as a betrayal of the loyalist cause so devised the plan to ambush McCoy and his bandmates in retaliation. She also suggests that it was Jackson who shot McCoy dead in the first volley of gunfire and it was the gunman, surviving bassist Stephen Travers heard, kicking McCoy's dead body afterwards as well as firing another round into him. She based her theories on the nine bullets that had been fired from a Luger into McCoy and that Jackson's fingerprints were found on the silencer that was used for a Luger.[72]

Jackson had assumed command of the Mid-Ulster UVF just a few days before the attack, when he allegedly shot Hanna to death on 27 July.[16][63] As previously stated, Harris Boyle had reportedly accompanied Jackson to the shooting.[73] Jackson had afterwards attended Hanna's funeral, where he was photographed standing beside Wesley Somerville.[74] On 5 August 1975, Jackson was taken in and questioned by the RUC as a suspect in the Miami Showband killings; he was subsequently released two days later without facing any charges.[75] In October 1976, two serving members of the UDR (Thomas Crozier and James McDowell) received life sentences for the killings. A third man, former UDR soldier, John James Somerville was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 1981.[76]

After his arrest, Jackson accused two Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Detective Constables, Norman Carlisle and Raymond Buchanan, of having physically assaulted him on 7 August 1975 while he had been in police custody at Bessbrook RUC Station.[77] Although medical evidence presented at the trial of the accused Detective Constables raised the possibility that Jackson's injuries were self-inflicted, on 23 December 1975 a magistrate upheld the charge against the two CID men and they were fined £10 each.[75]

On 11 June 1975, more than a month prior to the Miami Showband killings, Jackson, his brother-in-law, Samuel Fulton Neill, and Thomas Crozier had been arrested for the possession of four shotguns. Neill's car was later used in the Showband ambush. Neill was fatally shot in Portadown on 25 January 1976 allegedly by Jackson for having passed on information to the RUC about the people involved in the Showband attack.[78] The Douglass Cassel panel of inquiry stated that it was unclear why Jackson, Crozier and Neill had not been in police custody at the time the Showband killings took place.[79] The panel concluded that there was "credible evidence that the principal perpetrator [of the Miami Showband attack] was a man who was not prosecuted – alleged RUC Special Branch agent Robin Jackson".[80] Former British soldier and psychological warfare operative Major Colin Wallace stated that he was told in 1974 that Jackson was working as an agent for the RUC's Special Branch. He confirmed this allegation in a letter written to a colleague dated 14 August 1975 in which he named Jackson as an RUC Special Branch agent.[81]

The Historical Enquiries Team (HET), which was set up by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to investigate some of the more controversial Troubles-related deaths, released their report on the Miami Showband killings to the victims' families in December 2011. The findings noted in this report confirmed that Jackson was linked to the killings. It also stated that during police interrogations, Jackson had claimed that after the shootings a senior RUC officer had advised him to "lie low". Although this information was passed on to RUC headquarters and its Complaints and Discipline Department, nothing was done about it. The HET Report identified Jackson as having been an RUC Special Branch agent.[82]

The 2006 Interim Report named Jackson as having possibly been one of the two gunmen in the shooting death of the McKearney couple on 23 October 1975. Peter McKearney was shot between 14 and 18 times, and his wife, Jenny 11 times. The shooting took place at their home in Moy, County Tyrone; Jackson was linked to the Sterling submachine gun used in the killings. "Glenanne gang" member Garnet Busby pleaded guilty to the killings and was sentenced to life imprisonment.[93] John Weir claimed that Jackson led the group who bombed Kay's Tavern pub in Dundalk on 19 December 1975, which killed two men.[94] Barron implicated the "Glenanne gang" in the bombing,[90] however, Jackson was not identified by any eyewitnesses at or in the vicinity of Kay's Tavern.[95] Gardaí received information from a reliable source that Jackson and his car – a Vauxhall Viva with the registration number CIA 2771 – were involved in the bombing; yet there were no witnesses who reported having seen the car.[95] The RUC stated that Jackson had been observed celebrating at a Banbridge bar at 9.00 pm on the evening of the attack in the company of other loyalist extremists. The implication was that they were celebrating the Kay's Tavern bombing.[95]

The following month, on 4 January 1976, Jackson supposedly organised the "Glenanne gang"'s two coordinated sectarian attacks against the O'Dowd and Reavey families in County Armagh, leaving a total of five men dead and one injured.[94] Weir maintained that it was Jackson who shot 61-year-old Joseph O'Dowd and his two nephews, Barry and Declan, to death at a family celebration in Ballydougan, near Gilford; although Jackson had not been at the scene where the Reavey brothers had been killed twenty minutes earlier.[94] The day after the double killing, ten Protestant workmen were gunned down by the South Armagh Republican Action Force, who ambushed their minibus at Kingsmill near the village of Whitecross. The shootings were in retaliation for the O'Dowd and Reavey killings. The Glenanne gang made plans to avenge the Kingsmill victims with an attack on St Lawrence O'Toole Primary School, Belleeks. This plan, which involved the killing of at least 30 schoolchildren and their teacher, was called off at the last minute by the UVF's Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership based on the Shankill Road), who considered it "morally unacceptable" and feared it would have led to a civil war.[96]

Based on the description given by Barney O'Dowd, a survivor of the shooting attack at Ballydougan, one of the weapons used in the O'Dowd killings was a Luger with an attached silencer. [97] The findings noted in the HET Report on the Miami Showband killings revealed that on 19 May 1976, two fingerprints belonging to Jackson were discovered on the metal barrel of a home-made silencer constructed for a Luger pistol. Both the silencer and Luger, as well as more firearms, ammunition, a magazine, explosives, and bomb-making material, were found by the security forces at the farm of a man by the name of Edward Sinclair, a former member of the "B Specials". The exhibit, however, was mistakenly labelled indicating that his prints had been found on the black insulating tape wrapped around the silencer rather than the silencer itself.[98]

After several unsuccessful attempts to apprehend Jackson between 20 and 30 May, Jackson was arrested at his home on 31 May under Section 10 of the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973; he was taken to Armagh Police Station.[99] This was when the amended information regarding his fingerprints was delivered to Detective Superintendent Ernest Drew at Armagh. Drew and Detective Constable William Elder both questioned him; Jackson denied ever having been at Sinclair's farm whilst admitting knowing him through the Portadown Loyalist Club which they both frequented. When shown the Luger, silencer and magazine (but not the insulating tape), Jackson denied having handled them. When asked by Detective Superintendent Drew to provide an explanation should his fingerprints be discovered on either pistol or silencer, Jackson told him that one night at the Portadown Loyalist Club, Sinclair had asked him for some adhesive tape and Jackson claimed, "I gave him part of the roll I was using in the bar".[98]

Jackson had allegedly been using the tape whilst lapping hoses for beer kegs at the bar. In his statement to Detective Superintendent Drew, Jackson claimed that one week prior to his arrest, two high-ranking RUC officers had tipped him off about his fingerprints having been found on the insulating tape wrapped around the silencer used with the Luger. Jackson went on to say that he was forewarned, using the words: "I should clear as there was a wee job up the country that I would be done for and there was no way out of it for me".[98] On 2 June, Jackson was charged with possession of a firearm, a magazine, four rounds of ammunition and a silencer with intent to endanger life. He was detained in custody and went to trial on 11 November 1976 at a Diplock Court held at Belfast City Commission, charged only with possession of the silencer. Although the judge initially rejected his defence that his fingerprints were on the insulating tape and had "been innocently transferred to the silencer", he managed to avoid conviction when he was acquitted of the charge.[98] The trial judge, Mr. Justice Murray, had said: "At the end of the day I find that the accused somehow touched the silencer, but the Crown evidence has left me completely in the dark as to whether he did that wittingly or unwittingly, willingly or unwillingly".[97]

As a result of the judicious examination of forensic ballistics procured from original RUC reports and presented to Justice Barron, the 9 mm Luger pistol, serial no. U 4 for which the silencer was specifically made, was established as having been the same one used in the Miami Showband and John Francis Green killings.[97][76] According to journalist Tom McGurk, Miami Showband trumpeter Brian McCoy was shot nine times in the back with a Luger pistol.[100] The Miami inquiry team was never informed of these developments and Jackson was never questioned about the Miami Showband killings following the discovery of his fingerprints on the silencer. The Luger pistol serial no. U 4 was later destroyed by the RUC on 28 August 1978.[57] Barney O'Dowd claimed RUC detectives in the 1980s admitted to him that Jackson had been the man who shot the three O'Dowd men, but the evidence had not been sufficient to charge him with the killings.[101] In 2006, Barney O'Dowd spoke at the public hearings of the Houses of the Oireachtas Sub-Committee on the Barron Report Debate. He maintained that in June 1976 an RUC detective came to see him at his home and told him the gunman could not be charged with the killings as he was the "head of the UVF" and a "hard man" who could not be broken during police interrogation. Additionally the UVF had threatened to start shooting policeman like the IRA were doing if the gunman was ever charged with murder.[102]

Weir stated in his affidavit that on one occasion some months after he was transferred to Newry RUC station in October 1976, Jackson himself, and another RUC officer and "Glenanne gang" member, Gary Armstrong,[103] went on a reconnaissance in south Armagh seeking out the homes of known IRA members, with the aim of assassinating them. Jackson, according to Weir, carried a knife and hammer, and boasted to Weir that if they happened to "find a suitable person to kill", he [Jackson] "knew how to do it with those weapons".[34][n 2] They approached the houses of two IRA men; however, the plan to attack them was aborted and they drove back to Lurgan. They were stopped at an RUC roadblock near the Republic of Ireland border, but the three men were waved through, after an exchange of courtesies, despite the presence of Jackson in the car with two RUC officers.[34]

The village of Ahoghill, County Antrim, where the William Strathearn killing took place

He was implicated by Weir in the killing of Catholic chemist, William Strathearn,[104] who was shot at his home in Ahoghill, County Antrim after two men knocked on his door at 2.00 am on 19 April 1977 claiming to need medicine for a sick child.[105] Strathearn lived above his chemist's shop. Weir was one of the RUC men later convicted of the killing, along with his SPG colleague, Billy McCaughey, and he named Jackson as having been the gunman,[94] alleging that Jackson had told him after the shooting that he had shot Strathearn twice when the latter opened the door. Weir and McCaughey had waited in Weir's car while the shooting was carried out. The gun that Jackson used had been given to him by McCaughey, with the instructions that he was only to fire through an upstairs window to frighten the occupants and make sure they "got the message", and not to kill anyone. As in the Dublin bombings, Jackson's poultry lorry was also employed on this occasion, specifically to transport himself and Robert John "R.J." Kerr, another alleged accomplice, to and from the scene of the crime. After the killing, Jackson and Kerr went on to deliver a load of chickens. Kerr was allegedly Jackson's lorry helper, assisting in loading and unloading chickens which Jackson sold for a living.[34]

Jackson was never questioned about the killing. According to an RUC detective, he was not interrogated for "reasons of operational strategy".[106] Weir suggested that "Jackson was untouchable because he was an RUC Special Branch agent."[107] The Barron Report stated that Weir had made an offer to testify against Jackson and Robert John "R.J". Kerr, but only on the condition that the murder charge against him was withdrawn. This offer was refused by the Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions who said

Kerr and Jackson have not been interviewed by the police because the police state they are virtually immune to interrogation and the common police consensus is that to arrest and interview either man is a waste of time. Both men are known to police to be very active and notorious UVF murderers. Nevertheless the police do not recommend consideration of withdrawal of charges against Weir. I agree with this view. Weir and McCaughey must be proceeded against. When proceedings against them are terminated the position may be reviewed in respect of Jackson and Kerr.[106]

It is noted in the Barron Report that Northern Ireland's Lord Chief Justice Robert Lowry was aware of Jackson and Kerr's involvement in the Strathearn killing, and that they were not prosecuted for "operational reasons".[108] Mr. Justice Barron was highly critical of the RUC's failure to properly investigate Jackson.[109] Weir declared "I think it is important to make it clear that this collusion between loyalist paramilitaries such as Robin Jackson and my RUC colleagues and me was taking place with the full knowledge of my superiors".[34]

The interior of Crumlin Road Prison in Belfast. Following his arrest in 1979 for possession of guns, ammunition, and hoods, Jackson was remanded in custody to the prison to await trial

Journalist Liam Clarke alleged that in early 1978, Weir and Jackson traveled to Castleblaney with the intention of kidnapping an IRA volunteer named Dessie O'Hare from a pub called The Spinning Wheel. However, when Jackson and Weir arrived, they discovered the publican had been warned of the kidnap plot and they were ordered to leave the premises.[110]

Jackson's sole conviction came after he was arrested on 16 October 1979 when a .22 pistol, a .38 revolver, a magazine, 13 rounds of ammunition, and hoods were found in his possession.[111][53] He was remanded in custody to Crumlin Road Prison in Belfast to await trial.[34] On 20 January 1981, Jackson was brought before the Belfast Crown Court on charges of possession of guns and ammunition, and was sentenced to seven years in prison.[3] He was released on 12 May 1983.[111]

A man whose description matched Jackson's was seen behaving suspiciously in the vicinity of Lurgan RUC barracks close to where three prominent republicans were later ambushed and shot by masked UVF gunmen after they left the police station on 7 March 1990. The republicans had been signing in at the station as part of their bail conditions for charges of possession of ammunition. Sam Marshall was killed in the attack; Colin Duffy and Tony McCaughey were both wounded. Although the shooting was claimed by the UVF, the gunmen were never caught. Two UVF members were later convicted of having supplied the car used in the ambush.[112]