Police 'colluded with UVF terrorists'
Police colluded with loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, according to a report.
A three year investigation into a series of murders in the 1990s found the killings were carried out by Ulster Volunteer Force members who were also working as police informers.
The UVF members, based in north Belfast, were protected by Special Branch handlers to ensure they escaped prosecution with vital intelligence being withheld from detectives investigating the killings, the inquiry found.
The man at the centre of Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan's examination of the scandal, identified in her 160-page report only as Informant No 1, was paid at least £79,840 during the period under investigation from 1991 to 2003.
The Ombudsman concluded that her investigation had established collusion between certain officers within Special Branch and the UVF team based in the city's Mount Vernon district.
Her staff identified intelligence within the policing system, most of which was graded by police as reliable and probably true and corroborated by other sources, which linked the informants to the murders of ten people.
They were also associated with another 72 crimes, including ten attempted murders, ten punishment shootings, 13 punishment attacks, a bombing in Monaghan in the Irish Republic, and 17 instances of drug dealing as well as additional criminal damage, extortion and intimidation.
The Police Ombudsman's investigators also identified less significant and reliable intelligence linking the UVF men to an additional five murders.
The revelations are massively damaging for policing in Northern Ireland, and deal a shattering blow to the reputation of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
Mrs O'Loan said: "It would be easy to blame the junior officers' conduct in dealing with various informants and indeed they are not blameless.
"However, they could not have operated as they did without the knowledge and support at the highest level of the RUC and the PSNI."
VIDPolice 'colluded with UVF terrorists'