Donaldson's final moments revealed

Denis Donaldson’s desperate final moments as he tried to save himself from assassination were revealed tonight.

The British spy was blasted with a double-barrel shotgun through the front door of the dilapidated Co Donegal cottage where he had taken refuge.

He was also shot in the cheek, according to informed sources.

His killer, intent on avenging more than 20 years treachery to the republican movement, first distracted him by smashing a window with a rock.

When Donaldson, a former top Sinn Féin official, realised his life was in peril he made a last-ditch attempt to barricade himself in.

Throwing himself against the entrance to his run-down retreat near the remote town of Glenties, the double agent tried to stop the gunman breaking through.

“Denis had his right hand held against the door, but whoever was on the other side fired through.

“His hand was virtually severed at the wrist.”

Two shotgun cartridges were found outside the cottage on Tuesday, when Donaldson was finally hunted down.

But the murder was completed inside.

He was shot at least twice more – once to the body and then in the head.

Donaldson, a former confidant of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, was exiled to the cottage, owned by his son-in-law Ciaran Kearney, soon after his sensational exposure as an MI5 and police Special Branch spy in December.

That followed a decision to drop a three-year case against him, Mr Kearney and civil servant William Mackessy, who had been accused of operating a republican spy ring inside the Northern Ireland Office.

Donaldson went to ground, holing up in the crumbling cottage without running water or electricity, after making a public confession.

With the IRA declaring an end to all violence, he probably thought he would escape the ultimate punishment.

But whoever pulled the trigger was not to be placated.

It has also emerged that the alarm was raised by a woman driving in to Glenties to buy groceries.

She noticed the cottage door lying open as she drove past.

Her suspicions heightened when she returned and noticed it was still open.

Gardaí were alerted and found the body of Donaldson inside.

When they discovered him, in a room to the left, his hand was found under the body and hanging on just by its skin.