Loyalist Winston Rea 'admitted crimes' in Boston interviews

Winston Rea faces 19 charges dating back to 1973

The trial of a leading loyalist has heard that his interviews for an oral history project "included admissions by him to a variety of criminal offences".

Winston "Winkie" Churchill Rea faces 19 charges for offences allegedly committed between 1973 and 1996.

His trial, delayed over legal arguments, his continued ill-health and the coronavirus pandemic, began on Monday.

The 69-year-old Mr Rea denies all the charges.

They include aiding, abetting and conspiring to murder Catholic men John Devine in July 1989 and John O'Hara in April 1991, and conspiring to threaten to kill Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) leader Billy Wright in August 1996.

He has also pleaded not guilty to attempted murders and other terror-related offences, including Red Hand Commando membership, targeting those selling the republican paper An Phoblacht, conspiring to possess firearms, including those secured by the Ulster Resistance paramilitary group, and collecting information useful to terrorists.

Taped interviews

Opening its case, a prosecution lawyer said Mr Rea admitted taking part in "an academic oral history project known as the Belfast Project" at Boston College in the United States, which he understood would remain confidential until after his death.

Counsel said the alleged admissions made by Mr Rea as "Interviewee L" on the tapes, "form the subject matter of the indictment".

The prosecution contend that Interviewee L was the defendant, Mr Rea.

Mr Rea was allegedly one of a number of former paramilitaries, both loyalist and republican, who gave taped interviews about involvement in terrorism, which were then deposited in the Burns Library at the university.

Evidence linking him to the tapes allegedly include his handwriting from authorisations he gave to his solicitor and his admissions Mr Rea was "L".

The court was told other evidence included the defendant's admissions made in previous court hearings; personal details, including references to himself as "Winkie"; details of events he was known to be involved in, and finally voice analysis which "concluded that the speaker in the Boston recordings was 'highly likely' to be Winston Rea".

Mr Justice McAlinden was told the existence of the Boston College project was revealed in a 2010 book by journalist Ed Moloney entitled "Voices from the Grave".

As a result a successful request was made to the US authorities for those portions of the project involving Mr Rea which included the seven interview recordings and transcripts with "Interviewee L" .

Murder charges

Having given a general overview of the Boston tapes, and how they could be allegedly linked to Mr Rea, counsel then began to detail the various charges faced by him.

The court was told murder victim Mr Divine was a "totally innocent individual" shot dead in front of his 13-year-old son at his Fallswater Street home on 23 July 1989.

It transpired that the name of a John Devine was found in an "intelligence" notebook, but he was not the man eventually targeted and murdered.

The second murder which Mr Rea is accused of being involved in is that of taxi driver John O'Hara, who was shot dead in his car on 17 April 1991, just hours before a loyalist ceasefire took effect.

In the Boston interview Mr Rea allegedly confided that he "took a lot of flack over it from the UVF", who thought that "it was an attempt of deliberate sabotage to scupper things", but he assured them otherwise as he reasoned "any military operation could take place up until midnight".

The trial continues.