Raymond Gilmour was an Irish National Liberation Army and Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer who worked clandestinely from 1977 to 1982 for the Royal Ulster Constabulary within those paramilitary organisations.
23 Facts About Raymond Gilmour
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Raymond Gilmour's testimony was a main element of the supergrass policy, which was aimed at convicting large numbers of paramilitaries.
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Raymond Gilmour was born in 1959 into a working class Catholic, nationalist family in Creggan, Derry to Patrick and Brigid Gilmour, the youngest of eleven siblings and grew up as The Troubles began in Derry in the early 1970s.
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Raymond Gilmour's parents were reportedly split over the issue of political violence.
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Raymond Gilmour described his father as an "armchair supporter" of the IRA, while his mother was reportedly fiercely opposed to their actions.
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Two of Raymond Gilmour's brothers were kneecapped by the IRA for alleged anti-social behaviour.
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Raymond Gilmour was given a beating by British soldiers at age 13 for petty crime and they attempted to recruit him as an informer.
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Raymond Gilmour left school without sitting for his O Level exams and drifted into crime.
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Raymond Gilmour chose the INLA over the IRA as a number of his friends were already in the organisation.
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Raymond Gilmour participated in, among other activities, a botched car hijacking in which a friend, Colm McNutt, an INLA member, was shot dead by an undercover soldier.
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Raymond Gilmour got married the same year and fathered the first of two children.
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Raymond Gilmour claimed that he helped to foil many other IRA attacks, saving the lives of numerous police officers and soldiers.
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Raymond Gilmour was held in secret in an unknown location for almost a year.
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Raymond Gilmour was then sent to Cyprus and then Newcastle by the RUC.
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On 18 December 1984, the presiding judge, Lord Lowry, ruled that Raymond Gilmour was not a credible witness.
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In 2007, Raymond Gilmour publicly voiced his desire to return home to Derry, asking Martin McGuinness for assurances of his safety.
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Raymond Gilmour said he was suffering from a heart ailment and was an alcoholic.
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McGuinness said Raymond Gilmour had to decide for himself if it was safe to return and whether or not he was under threat.
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McGuinness stated that if de facto exiles such as Raymond Gilmour wanted to return home, it was a matter for their own judgment and their ability to make peace with the community.
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On 27 October 2016, Raymond Gilmour was found dead in his flat in Kent, where he had lain dead for up to a week.
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Raymond Gilmour was reportedly an alcoholic with serious psychological problems.
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Raymond Gilmour spent years begging MI5 for financial and psychological help.
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Raymond Gilmour was a broken man, a wreck of a human being, and they left him to die in the gutter.