41 Facts About Billy McCaughey

Billy McCaughey was imprisoned for 16 years for murder from 1980 to 1996.

Billy McCaughey's father, Alexander McCaughey, was an elder in the local Trinity Presbyterian Church.

Billy McCaughey was described by investigative journalist Martin Dillon as a "pillar of respectability".

Billy McCaughey co-operated extensively with the UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade and carried out a number of attacks on their behalf, along with SPG colleagues.

Billy McCaughey had been on escort duty for Ulster Unionist Party politician John Taylor, who was attending a party in the house at the time.

Billy McCaughey was arrested in 1980 along with SPG colleague John Weir, and admitted to a number of sectarian murders.

Billy McCaughey admitted the 1977 sectarian murder of chemist William Strathern, a Catholic.

Billy McCaughey pleaded guilty to the kidnapping of a Catholic priest, Father Hugh Murphy, in retaliation for the kidnapping and killing of two members of the security forces by the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

Billy McCaughey admitted to a gun and bomb attack on a pub, The Rock Bar, in Keady in 1977.

Billy McCaughey shot and seriously injured a man who prevented him entering the pub, which he intended to spray with machine gun fire.

Billy McCaughey was implicated in the killings of three members of the O'Dowd family - Barry, his brother Declan and their uncle Joe - targeted 10 minutes after the Reaveys.

Billy McCaughey told the surviving Reavey brother in 1988 that he was at the house with three other attackers but fired no shots.

Billy McCaughey claimed that the Kingsmill massacre of 10 Protestant civilians the following day caused him to pass RUC intelligence to loyalist paramilitaries.

Billy McCaughey was one of the first police officers on the scene and recalled that.

Weir and Billy McCaughey implicated colleagues in at least eleven other sectarian murders.

Billy McCaughey claimed that many local RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment personnel were working with loyalist paramilitaries in the Armagh area in what became known as the Glenanne gang.

Weir claimed that Billy McCaughey was part of this "Glenanne gang", although Billy McCaughey disputed this.

Billy McCaughey refused to give evidence to Mr Justice Barron's enquiry, claiming "I know nothing about it".

In prison in the Maze, Billy McCaughey completed a degree in Education and Social Science in 1994 from the Open University.

Billy McCaughey organised fundraising in prison to help defend DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson in a court case, organising a sponsored run around the prison exercise yard.

Billy McCaughey appears to have become disillusioned with Paisley, allowing his membership of the Free Presbyterian Church to lapse by 1998.

Billy McCaughey said he sympathised with the aim of the Harryville protest, which was "to secure civil rights" for Orangemen in Dunloy.

Billy McCaughey later claimed that he had 'withdrawn from the protest because of a "witch hunt" against him by the nationalist media'.

Billy McCaughey was pictured wearing his Orange Order sash during one occasion at the protest.

The Ulster Unionist Party MP Ken Maginnis had called for Billy McCaughey to be returned to jail for his role in the Harryville protest.

Some years later Billy McCaughey joined the short lived United Loyalist Cultural Committee, a loyalist group which admitted to having members from the UVF and UDA.

Billy McCaughey organised a picket with 20 supporters on the day of the court hearing.

When he was sent to prison the then RUC chief constable, Jack Hermon, opposed any pension for Billy McCaughey but failed on a legal technicality.

Immigrant workers from Romania and the Philippines residing in loyalist areas had their homes attacked, leading Billy McCaughey to encourage young loyalists in the town not to join racist groups.

Billy McCaughey declared that he intended "to invite the President to visit the staunchly Protestant Ballee and Harryville areas of Ballymena".

Billy McCaughey then withdrew the invitation because of President McAleese's "Holocaust Day speech in which she compared Protestant prejudice towards Catholics to the Nazi hatred of Jews".

In July 2005, a meeting of the District Policing Partnership in the County Antrim village of Clogh had to be abandoned after loyalist protesters, including Billy McCaughey, protested due to the presence of SDLP councillor and DPP chairman Declan O'Loan.

Protesters shouted sectarian abuse at O'Loan and Billy McCaughey stated the protest could have been avoided if O'Loan "had accepted his total unacceptability" in Clogh.

When republicans proposed their first ever parade in Ballymena in 2005 to commemorate Operation Demetrius, to some surprise Billy McCaughey didn't have any objections to the proposed parade as long as the route wasn't contentious.

In 2001, Billy McCaughey stood for election to Ballymena Borough Council, for the PUP in Ballymena South and 2005.

Billy McCaughey unsuccessfully contested North Antrim for the assembly elections in 2003.

Billy McCaughey was married and had three children with his wife Angela.

Billy McCaughey was unsuccessful, receiving 53 votes.

Billy McCaughey was believed to have contracted cancer over a year previously and was thought to be in remission after treatment.

The local Ballymena Times reported, "Billy McCaughey apparently underwent a 'Road To Damascus' style conversion - supporting the peace process and leading a campaign against Neo Nazis".

Bunting's father was once held at gun point by Billy McCaughey in 1971 due to the fact he was a Catholic and was forced to leave his job.