Finucane killer renewing fight for early release

A loyalist hitman who murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane is planning a new legal fight to be released within months, it emerged today.

Even though Ken Barrett received a life sentence in September for the killing, it was thought he could be freed next March under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

But the 42-year-old assassin has been told he does not qualify for the early release scheme because he is not in a Northern Ireland jail.

Barrett, who has amassed scores of dangerous enemies among his former loyalist paramilitary associates, was transferred to London’s Belmarsh Prison because of threats against him.

The decision by the Sentence Review Commission which runs the release programme means he may be forced to serve the minimum 22 years behind bars recommended when he pleaded guilty to murder.

But his solicitor Joe Rice claimed today that the body had made an error.

“They misdirected themselves in law and effectively didn’t give him an opportunity to have his application fully and properly considered,” he said.

“Ken Barrett continues to be a sentenced prisoner under the regime applicable to Northern Ireland.

“He’s still very much part and parcel of the Northern Ireland criminal process.

“We now have instructions from him by telephone that he wishes to appeal this decision.”

It is expected that a three-member panel from the Commission will be asked to review the decision.

If that goes against Barrett, his legal representatives will consider launching a Judicial Review bid at the High Court in Belfast.

Under the early release programme, terrorists convicted before the April 1998 Good Friday Agreement who had served at least two years in prison were considered for release.

The scheme, which saw some of Northern Ireland’s most notorious killers walk free, is one of the most controversial strands of the peace process.

Barrett, an Ulster Defence Association commander, gunned down Mr Finucane in front of his family at their north Belfast home in February 1989.

He had already been behind bars for well over a year when he sensationally admitted the shooting at the start of his trial.

Mr Finucane’s son, Michael, today declined to comment on Barrett’s case.