EXCLUSIVE STORY
ADAIR SAYS PLANS ARE READY TO EXTRADITE
Adair hits out at dissident republican who he believes murdered British agent.
FORMER loyalist terror chief Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair believes a republican jailed for plotting to kill him will stand trial for the murder of British double agent Denis Donaldson.
Adair was speaking from his home in Scotland on Saturday night 12th March, hours after the Police Ombudsman Report into Donaldson's murder was made public. He said he believed plans were already in place to scoop jailed republican Anton Duffy as soon as he becomes a free man again.
Duffy, from Mullaghduff in west Donegal, is currently serving a 17-year sentence for conspiracy to kill ex-UDA 'C Coy' boss Adair (both pictured above) and his Shankill Road sidekick Sam 'Skelly' McCrory.
In 2015, the now 46-year-old was jailed along with fellow republicans Martin Hughes (43) and Paul Sands (39) who were sentenced to 11 and 10 years respectively.
Trial judge Lady Scott - who described Duffy (pictured below) in court as the "instigator and driving force" behind the double murder plan - also ruled that the Irishman be heavily scrutinised for three years following his release.
SOONER
But on Saturday night Adair said he believed Duffy may be out sooner rather than later. He understands Duffy will be immediately extradited from Scotland to the Republic of Ireland to stand trial for the murder of Donaldson in Donegal in 2006. The former terror boss said: "Obviously, I keep a close eye on this individual. And I make it my business to closely monitor his movements. "As far as I'm aware, everything is in place to take him back to the Republic of Ireland. "Duffy and the others were caught in a trap set up for them by MI5. It was a 13-month investigation before they were arrested. "And Skelly and I knew absolutely nothing about it until the police arrived to tell us they had been arrested. But I made my business to find out all I could about him," he said. "Anton Duffy is a very dangerous man," added Adair, who was previously jailed for 16-years for directing loyalist terrorism. Adair also revealed for the first time details of how Duffy and his gang kicked off their double murder conspiracy plan. Adair had travelled with McCrory from their homes in Ayrshire to HMP Shotts in Lanarkshire to visit a former LVF prisoner.
SPOTTED
And it was during their time in the visiting block that Duffy first spotted the well-known Ulster loyalists.
Duffy he hatched a plot to kill the Belfast men as they made their way to or from the jail. Duffy even (pictured above, along with police interviews) acquired an AK-47-style assault rifle for the job. But their plan began to unfold when MI5 set up a special investigation aimed at snaring the would-be killers.
Operation Hairsplitter was set up in late September 2012 to investigate Duffy's concerted efforts to procure deadly weapons which he hoped to use on the planned hits on Adair and McCrory. The authorities believed that if the murder plan had been successful, it would have had serious consequences with possible sectarian violence on both sides of the Irish Sea. No expense was spared and expensive listening devices were used to eavesdrop on Duffy and his gang as they continued to make plans.
But republican plotters Duffy, Sands and Hughes (all 3 pictured below) were arrested in October 2013 and two others -(pictured above) who played lesser roles - were arrested later. Speaking outside the court following the 'Duffy's gang' conviction, Adair said the guilty men "deserved every minute" of their lengthy sentences. "The severity of the sentences reflects the seriousness of the charges and I'm delighted that justice has been done today," he said. In 2017, it emerged gardaí in Donegal had submitted a file on the Donaldson murder to the Director of Public Prosecutions. And during an inquest hearing in Letterkenny two years later, a senior Garda officer revealed the director had ordered murder charges should be instigated. It is understood the Donaldson family has been made aware of the identity of the individual at the centre of the Garda investigation.
And they are also familiar with the particular difficulties detectives face in bringing him before the courts. Two years ago, gardaí revealed a European Arrest Warrant had been executed by Police Scotland on a man currently resident in that country.
HOPEFUL
On Saturday night March 12th, Adair said he was hopeful Duffy would soon be back in Donegal to answer questions connected to Donaldson's murder. "Obviously, I made it my business to find out everything I could about this individual. As far as I know, that before going to jail all he did was sit about pubs drinking Guinness and plotting murder," Adair said. "He is a very dangerous individual, but hopefully he'll be back in Donegal before too long."
Denis Donaldson's (pictured above left) life - ended by a shotgun blast 16 years ago - was largely dominated by lies, deceit and double dealing. But it wasn't always like that. Almost from birth, Denis's heart was set on a romantic vision of a '32 County Irish Socialist Republic'. And as a teenager growing up in Belfast's Short Strand, he spent many nights attending education classes at a house across the bridge in south Belfast. And he eventually joined the growing Irish Republican Movement in the mid-1960s. It was a time of hope, because fully 50 years had passed since the Easter Rising in Dublin and things in Ireland were changing fast. Denis Donaldson was one of a handful of new recruits sworn into the PIRA at a secret ceremony in Ormeau Park. And before long, he was to play a leading role in what became known as the 'Battle of St Matthew's', when PIRA gunmen held of loyalists attacking the Catholic Short Strand in 1969. But it was only years later that the truth of the 'battle' would emerge - that showed that Donaldson actually accidentally shot leading PIRA man Billy McKee and another republican during the siege.
But the myth surrounding the St Matthew's gun battle did Denis Donaldson's republican credentials no harm. The false account was his first major lie. There was many many more to come.
After a stint in jail where he befriended future PIRA hunger strike hero Bobby Sands, Donaldson (both pictured below) went on to become a key Sinn Féin apparatchik and a close confidante of party chief Gerry Adams. Although still a member of the Provisional IRA, Donaldson represented Sinn Féin in America.
FALSE
And travelling on a false passport, he met Middle Eastern terrorist leaders at a training camp in Lybia. On bizarre excursion, he travelled to Beirut in a bid to secure the release of Belfast-born hostage Brian Keenan, when he met members of the Hezbollah terrorist group. Rebels in Lebanon had never heard of Sinn Féin, so he took to saying 'Bobby Sands' as a way of telling them that he was a republican from Ireland.
The fact that he could infiltrate infamous terror groups like Hezbollah made Donaldson an agent like no other. Later in his role as Sinn Féin Director of Communications at Stormont, Donaldson gradually wore down unionist hostility by using his natural charm and good manners.
But unknown to everyone - including his own comrades - the affable Donaldson was a double agent.
He had secretly been recruited by the (police) RUC Special Branch and later on by MI5 as a high-level informer operating inside Sinn Féin and the IRA. And when the story broke in 2006 stone-faced Gerry Adams (pictured below) and Martin McGuinness informed the assembled press. And later the same day, Donaldson admitted his role at a press conference on TV. It later emerged he had also endured several debriefing sessions with republican interrogators.
In March 2006, the Sunday World tracked Denis Donaldson down to a remote cottage outside Glenties in Co Donegal. He insisted he had been thrown to the wolves by the authorities. And he said he wanted to be left in peace, although he ominously added: "I don't suppose there will be much peace now."
In reporting the story, we were careful not to release details of the exact location of Donaldson's hideaway. But just over two weeks later, Donaldson was shot dead inside the doorway of his cottage home. As his shotgun-carrying killer approached the door, Donaldson went to investigate. Two shots were blasted through the door. One shot caught his hand almost severing it. And the killer reloaded his weapon, and the door was kicked in. Donaldson was shot again at point-blank, this time hitting him in the chest and head. This week, following a series of complaints from the Donaldson family, Marie Anderson, Police Ombudsman for *orthern Ireland, made public her report.
She found the PSNI/RUC had been negligible in not providing adequate protection for the former police informer after the Sunday World story was published. And the Ombudsman also said no evidence existed to suggest the police had leaked Donaldson's whereabouts to the paper.
With many thanks to: Hugh Jordan and the Sunday World for the EXCLUSIVE original story - who can be contacted at: Contact Hugh Jordan
Follow these links to find out more about this story and more: Johnny Adair claims weapons were supplied by Ulster Resistance and distributed to Loyalists by Willie Frazer
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