23 Facts About Tommy Lyttle

Tommy Lyttle served as the UDA's spokesman as well as the leader of the organisation's West Belfast Brigade from 1975 until his arrest and imprisonment in 1990.

Tommy Lyttle had taken over the brigade from Charles Harding Smith, the former leader of the UDA, and its first commander following the organisation's formation.

Tommy Lyttle was a member of the UDA's Inner Council and served as the UDA's spokesman.

Tommy Lyttle was an Independent Unionist candidate for North Belfast in the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly elections.

Tommy Lyttle was not elected having only polled a total of 560 votes.

Tommy Lyttle took his loss in stride with the statement: "It's not such a bad result for someone whose day job is a bookie".

When Tommy Lyttle returned from the trip, which was largely unsuccessful, he was caught up in a loyalist feud between Tyrie and Charles Harding Smith for overall control of the UDA.

Tommy Lyttle was with Harding Smith when the latter was shot and wounded by a sniper in January 1975.

Tommy Lyttle was then appointed West Belfast Brigadier in his stead.

In January 1990, Tommy Lyttle, along with his son, "Tosh", was arrested by the John Stevens Enquiry team after his fingerprints were found on a stolen classified document which was a security forces list of suspected republicans, likely to be used by loyalist paramilitaries for targeting people to be assassinated by hit squads.

Tommy Lyttle was brought before Belfast's Crumlin Road Court where he was convicted of receiving and passing on classified security force intelligence files and intimidating potential witnesses.

Journalists Henry McDonald and Brian Rowan, in company with the Pat Finucane Centre, later revealed that Tommy Lyttle was an informer working for the RUC's Special Branch with the codename "Rodney Stewart".

Tommy Lyttle maintained that two RUC officers had originally proposed the idea of killing Finucane.

Two years prior to Finucane's assassination, Tommy Lyttle reportedly had asked Nelson to obtain details on top IRA figures.

On 9 October 1987, Tommy Lyttle sent out a UDA hit squad, headed by Sam McCrory using the cover name "Ulster Freedom Fighters" to Notarantonio's home where they shot him to death in his bedroom.

Tommy Lyttle threw a similar party following the assassination of Finucane.

The possibility of conspiracy became public through Tommy Lyttle himself, following the shooting of Loughlin Maginn on 25 August 1989.

Media coverage showed Maginn as the innocent victim of a sectarian attack but Tommy Lyttle personally contacted members of the press to inform them that the UDA had good reasons for killing Maginn, whose name was on the list.

Tommy Lyttle's close personal relationship with Ulster Volunteer Force chief John "Bunter" Graham was a source of animosity as the younger members tended to view the UVF as a rival organisation despite their shared loyalism.

Tommy Lyttle was released in 1994 on remission after having served three years of his seven-year sentence.

Tommy Lyttle left his home in the Shankill and retired to Donaghadee, County Down, where he died of a heart attack on 18 October 1995 as he was playing snooker in a local pub.

Tommy Lyttle recounted a scene from his childhood when he had gone downstairs to get a glass of water and discovered a bloodied man tied to a chair being beaten by his father.

Tommy Lyttle momentarily stopped hitting his victim to order one of his henchmen to fetch his son a glass of water.