Summary
‘The Billy Wright Inquiry – Report’ (HC 431) examines findings of the four-year inquiry into the murder of Northern Irish paramilitary leader Billy Wright over 12 years ago.
Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) leader Billy Wright was shot to death whilst secured as an inmate at HMP Maze prison in Belfast on Saturday 27 December 1997. His murderers, also HMP Maze inmates, were three members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), a republican paramilitary faction.
As a result of suspected collusion by prison staff, retired Canadian Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Peter Cory, set up the Inquiry into Wright’s death.
The report concludes that with consideration of both Judge Cory’s Inquiry and submissions made in respect of it, there is no evidence to confirm any collusive acts or collusive conduct by the individuals in question.
However, the document is critical of certain individuals and institutions and concluded that some of their actions facilitated Wright’s death.
A number of faults on the part of The Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) that facilitated Billy Wright’s murder include:
- the poor management and operation of HMP Maze;
- lack of segregation of prisoners;
- staff supervision and 24 hour unlock;
- security checks of exercise yards;
- failure to implement recommendations of the Steele Report of 1997 on security;
- the transfer of Wright to H6; and
- failure to consider a report by the International Red Cross that H6 was a "powder-keg".
Billy Wright was born in Wolverhampton, England on 7 July 1969 and moved to Northern Ireland at the age of four. He was familiar with prison life from a young age, after his first arrest at the age of 15 for the cause of loyalist paramilitary group the Young Citizens Volunteers.
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