FINUCANE 'SHOT 22 TIMES'

A loyalist accused of murdering Belfast defence lawyer Pat
Finucane in 1989 admitted that he was 'massacred' in a taped
confession, a court was told today.

Ken Barrett was appearing in a bail hearing before Mr Justice
Kerr when details of the prosecution case emerged:

An undercover officer asked him about the Finucane murder and
he said: "It wasn't the first occasion I done it. It was just
that he got so much publicity because he was a republican
solicitor.

"He was an IRA man and all that. He was in the media and to be
honest... he believed he could not be touched.

"He hadn't really got shot. He got fucking massacred. He was
hit 22 times. I have to be honest I whacked a few people in
the past. People say to me how do you sleep. I sleep fine."

Mr Kerr said Barret had also sought to justify the Finucane
killing. The court heard that he said: "Finucane was up to
his neck in it," and named other persons as being involved in
the murder.

All of those involved in the killing were acting in collusion
with the RUC police and a notorious British military
intelligence, the FRU.

It was soon after the murder of Billy Stobie in 1999 -- he had
been cleared a few week earlier of the Finucane murder when
the case against him collapsed -- that a campaign began
against Barret accusing him of being an agent.

It was then that he was moved to a safe house in England as
his life was under threat.

The admission followed on admissions made by Barret in the BBC
Panorama programme "Licence to Murder".

Barrett had claimed the go-ahead for the shooting was given
after army agent Brian Nelson had passed on a photograph of Mr
Finucane.

"We decided he was going down and that's the end of it,"
Barrett said on camera.

Barrett continues to deny the allegations, alleging an
entrapment operation which he had gone along with in order to
get money.

Bail was denied.