A leading figure within the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), Barrett was involved in collusion between loyalists and the British security forces during the Troubles.
[2] Barrett joined the UDA some time in the early to mid-1980s and was part of the West Belfast Brigade's B Company which covered the Woodvale area at the top of the Shankill.
However, Barrett proved to be an ineffectual leader and before long he was pushed aside in favour of Billy Kennedy, Tommy Lyttle's brother-in-law and the man chosen by the former brigadier as his successor.
[13] Under interrogation, in 1991 Barrett had confessed to Johnston Brown, a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officer who spent much of his career investigating the activities of the UDA in West Belfast, that he had fired shots into Finucane as he lay on the ground.
Barrett was shown telling the programme that he had been involved in the killing and the documentary reignited the furore over the issue of collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries.
[21] Barrett also claimed that an RUC roadblock had been set up specifically to help the killers that night, adding that "Finucane would have been alive today if the peelers [police] hadn't interfered".
[23] According to author Ian S. Wood, Spence called on the help of UDA brigadier Mo Courtney in an attempt to secure Barrett's co-operation in avoiding as long a case as possible.
Wood claimed that Spence had promised Courtney a substantial sum of money to "lean on" Barrett, with both men being held on remand in Maghaberry at the time.
[24] Despite the recommendation that Barrett serve a minimum 22 years the Sentence Review Commission endorsed his case for early release and he was freed from Maghaberry, to which he had been transferred, in May 2006.