Loyalists plotted to kill priests, court told

Feared renegade loyalist boss Billy Wright threatened to kidnap and kill three priests if Orangemen were not allowed to march on the flashpoint Garvaghy Road at the height of the 1996 Drumcree stand-off, a court heard today.

The plan to abduct three priests from the parochial house in Gilford, Co Armagh, also involved one of Wright’s closest associates at the time, Mark “Swinger” Fulton.