Billy Wright

William Stephen Wright (7 July 1960 – 27 December 1997), known as King Rat, was a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary leader who founded the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) during The Troubles.

William Stephen "Billy" Wright, named after his grandfather, was born in Wolverhampton, England on 7 July 1960 to David Wright and Sarah McKinley, Ulster Protestants from Portadown, Northern Ireland.

He was the only son of five children.

Before Wright's birth, his parents had moved to England when they fell out with many of their neighbours after his grandfather had challenged tradition by running as an Independent Unionist candidate and defeated the local Official Unionist MP.

The Wright family had a long tradition in Northern Ireland politics; Billy's great-grandfather Robert Wright had once served as a Royal Commissioner.

His father found employment in the West Midlands industrial city of Wolverhampton.

In 1964, the family returned to Northern Ireland and Wright soon came under the influence of his maternal uncle Cecil McKinley, a member of the Orange Order.

About three years later, Wright's parents separated and his mother decided to leave her children behind when she transferred once more to England.

None of the Wright siblings would ever see their mother again.

Wright and his four sisters (Elizabeth, Jackie, Angela and Connie) were placed in foster care by the welfare authorities.

He was raised separately from his sisters in a children's home in Mountnorris, South Armagh (a predominantly Irish republican area).

Wright was brought up in the Presbyterian religion of his mother and attended church twice on Sundays.

The young Wright mixed with Catholics and played Gaelic football, indicating an amicable relationship with the local Catholic, nationalist population.

His family were not extreme Ulster loyalists.

Wright's father, while campaigning for an inquest into his son's death, later described loyalist killings as "abhorrent".

Two of Wright's sisters married Catholic men, one having come from County Tipperary and whom Wright liked.

Wright's sister Angela maintained that he personally got on well with Catholics, and that he was only anti-Irish republican and anti-IRA.

For a while David Wright cohabitated with Kathleen McVeigh, a Catholic from Garvagh.

Whilst attending Markethill High School, Wright took a part-time job as a farm labourer where he came into contact with a number of staunchly unionist and loyalist farmers who served with the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Reserve or the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR).

The conflict known as the Troubles had been raging across Northern Ireland for about five years by this stage, and many young men such as Wright were swept up in the maelstrom of violence as the Provisional IRA ramped up its bombing campaign and sectarian killings of Catholics by loyalists continued to escalate.

During this time Wright's opinions moved towards loyalism and soon he got into trouble for writing the initials "UVF" on a local Catholic primary school wall.

When he refused to clean off the vandalism, Wright was transferred from the area and sent to live with an aunt in Portadown.

In the more strongly loyalist environment of Portadown, nicknamed the "Orange Citadel", Wright was, along with other working-class Protestant teenagers in the area, targeted by the loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) as a potential recruit.

Wright had joined the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in his home town of Portadown around 1975.

After spending several years in prison, he became a Protestant fundamentalist preacher.

Wright resumed his UVF activities around 1986 and, in the early 1990s, replaced Robin Jackson as commander of that organisation's Mid-Ulster Brigade.

According to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), Wright was involved in the sectarian killings of up to 20 Catholics but was never convicted for any.

In 1994, the UVF and other paramilitary groups called a ceasefire.

Wright became a staunch opponent of the Northern Ireland peace process, seeing it as a sell-out to Irish nationalists and republicans.

Wright drew media attention during the Drumcree standoffs of 1995 and 1996, when he supported the Protestant Orange Order's demand to march their traditional route through the Catholic district of Portadown.

During the July 1996 Drumcree crisis, Wright's unit carried out several attacks, including a sectarian murder.

For breaking the ceasefire, Wright's Portadown unit was stood down by the UVF leadership.

He was expelled from the UVF and threatened with assassination unless he immediately left Northern Ireland.

Wright ignored these threats and formed the LVF with most of his brigade, becoming its leader.

The LVF carried out a string of killings of Catholic civilians, while allegedly profiting from extortion and narcotics trafficking.

In January 1997, Wright was arrested for making death threats against a woman, and that March was convicted and sent to the Maze Prison.

While imprisoned, Wright continued to direct the LVF.

On 27 December 1997, Wright was assassinated by Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners with a gun smuggled into the prison.

An inquiry into Wright's death concluded that serious failings had been shown in the prison authorities.

It has been alleged that Wright was a police informant who received help from the Special Branch.