I have no regrets killing King Rat, claims terrorist By David Sharrock, Ireland Correspondent A REPUBLICAN terrorist who murdered the loyalist Billy Wright, known as King Rat, in the Maze prison was unrepentant yesterday when he was freed under the Good Friday Agreement after serving less than three years. Billy Wright: shot seven times while he was waiting for a visit from his girlfriend Christopher "Crip" McWilliams said as he left Magilligan prison, Co Londonderry, that he had no regrets over the murder of Wright, the leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force. However, McWilliams added that he would support calls for a public inquiry into the circumstances of Wright's death. The family of Wright is campaigning for an inquiry because of the controversial nature of his killing inside the top security Maze prison, which recently closed. McWilliams and two Irish National Liberation Army colleagues, John Kennaway and John Glennon, shot Wright as he boarded a prison bus on Dec 27, 1997. McWilliams, who was also serving time for the murder of a Belfast bar manager in 1991, was greeted by about 20 supporters as he left Magilligan prison. When questioned about Wright's murder, he said: "As an INLA volunteer at the time I have no regrets, but I want to emphasise that as an individual I took no personal satisfaction out of playing my role to eliminate Billy Wright. "A decision was taken to eliminate Billy Wright solely because he was the man who had opted to direct a ruthless campaign of slaughter of innocent Catholics from inside Long Kesh." McWilliams was released at the same time as Kennaway. Glennon was released on Thursday. All three are believed to be leaving for America, because they fear that their lives will be in danger if they stay in Northern Ireland. While in the Maze, they climbed out of their compound on to a prison roof, cut through a fence and ran across a prison yard to reach the loyalist compound. They shot Wright as he sat in a bus waiting to be taken to a meeting with his girlfriend in the prison's visiting area. He was hit by up to seven shots fired from two guns, a 9mm automatic Makarov pistol and a double-barrel Derringer pistol. Both weapons had been smuggled into the prison. At the trial of the three men in October 1998 Patrick Lynch, QC, prosecuting, described the murder as "obviously a coolly planned operation". All three were jailed for life for the murder and were given 20 years for possession of weapons. Under the Good Friday Agreement, signed less than four months after the attack, the men were granted early release. Mr Wright's father, David, was informed of the releases in advance. He said yesterday: "I bear no animosity towards the men who killed my son, because that will not bring him back. The only thing that will make me feel better is ensuring the inquiry into Billy's death goes ahead. My concerns are no less relevant than those held by the families of Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson." Mr Finucane and Mrs Nelson were both Catholic solicitors allegedly murdered by loyalist terrorists. McWilliams added: "I would like to say today that we would fully support anyone's calls for the British Government, or even the southern government, to instigate any inquiry so as to help establish the facts leading to and during our participation in the operation against Billy Wright." He offered to return to the Maze to stage a reconstruction of the murder but refused to go into the details of the attack. He denied knowing that security cameras were not working and that a watch tower was unmanned that day.
