- The Observer,
- Sunday April 20 2003
Born in the loyalist heartland of Belfast's Shankill Road, Nelson joined the British Army. His career was far from glorious and in 1972 he returned to the Shankill Road and joined the UDA. He was jailed for seven years for kidnapping and on his release in 1983 he offered his services to the FRU. He rose through the UDA's ranks and became a senior intelligence officer in west Belfast.
In 1987, Nelson was re-recruited by Brigadier Gordon Kerr, then a Colonel in the FRU. Kerr relocated Nelson to the Highfield area of west Belfast where he was encouraged to re-join the UDA.
In early 1987 Nelson learned of an assassination bid on Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams. But just before the operation Nelson tipped off his handlers who alerted an undercover Army unit. Realising their mission was compromised, the UDA team aborted the hit.
In the same year Nelson discovered that the UDA was preparing to kill a leading member of the IRA's Belfast Brigade. The UDA's target - unknown to them - was the security forces' most senior mole inside the IRA, codename Stakeknife. After informing his handlers, Nelson was told to divert the murder team and send them to kill 66-year-old Victor Notarantonio, who was later gunned down at his home.
Two years later Nelson provided intelligence documents including a photograph of solicitor Pat Finucane, two of whose brothers were senior members of the IRA. On 12 February 1989 members of Nelson's UDA unit murdered Finucane.
The former soldier was smuggled out of Northern Ireland in 1989 after allegations of collusion between loyalist terrorists and the security forces. A few days before he was moved by his handlers the UDA had interrogated Nelson. He was tortured but did not break; his silence saved him.
His death has cheated the families of Victor Notarantonio and Pat Finucane and others killed by the UDA of cross-examining him and gleaning some truth from Ulster's secret war.
