He was a close friend of Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) leader Billy Wright and was the main orator at his funeral following his killing by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in December 1997.
[2] McClinton was regularly involved in violence during his time away at sea and left the Merchant Navy with 200 stitches in his body from the knife fights in which he had participated.
[4] McClinton joined the UDA after leaving the UDR and, with his military background, was soon added to the ranks of their Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), its branch responsible for committing violent attacks.
[6] After becoming a committed born-again Christian in the H Blocks, McClinton, led by his faith, wrote sixteen statements of full responsibility for very serious UFF terrorist offences, got the RUC/C.I.D.
[7] The attack took place as Carville was driving his son down Cambrai Street, which links the Shankill and Crumlin Roads, on St Patrick's Day.
[2] During the failed second strike by the Ulster Workers' Council later that year, McClinton boarded a busand shot dead Harry Bradshaw, the Protestant driver of the bus.
[7] Following the killing, the UDA, unknown to McClinton, wrote to his widow Sheila Bradshaw, stating that they were sorry for the murder and that they believed her husband to be a Catholic.
[12] He retained his reputation for violence in the Maze although he also took to writing poetry, which generally dealt with the theme of anger at his and other loyalists' incarceration when he felt they were simply supporting British rule through their actions against the IRA.
After reading the prison-issue KJV Bible, on 12 August 1979 McClinton called upon God and told him that he believed His word - 'Whosoever calleth on the Name of the Lord, shall be saved' (Romans 10:13).
[17] Seeking to change his ways, he undertook various programmes of study, obtaining a degree in criminology and social sciences from the Open University as well as years of correspondence courses in theology from the Emmaus Bible School in Liverpool.
[7] Many of those who converted to Christ at that dark time in the Maze Prison, are serving God, many of them as formally ordained ministers, pastors, bible-teachers and missionaries.
The experiment was abandoned on 24 March 1983 when McClinton, who had been ostracised by the republican prisoners for ten weeks, was attacked and buckets of boiling water were poured over his back.
[7] He established Higher Force Challenge, a youth scheme that sought to initiate dialogue and positive interaction between Catholic and Protestant young people (18 to 25-year-old high-risk category).
[citation needed] McClinton has successfully participated in a number of Evangelical bible-teaching missions to America, until 9/11, after which he was refused entry due to his past.
His five-module course in Basic Christian Homiletics has been widely used internationally in bible colleges, churches and mission-fields in America, India and Nigeria.
[21] McClinton became a close associate of Clifford Peoples, a Shankill-based former UVF member who was a leading figure in Families Against Intimidation and Terror.
[16] McClinton had been close personally to Billy Wright and was the main orator at the Loyalist Volunteer Force leader's funeral following his killing inside the Maze Prison by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in December 1997.
(General Jean de Chastelain, IICD) Although there was no indication of any direct link, McClinton's name appeared on a list of people issued by Johnny Adair's C Company of the UDA as part of an attempt to initiate a loyalist feud with the UVF.
McClinton was listed along with Peeples, Jackie Mahood and the already murdered Frankie Curry as examples of dissident loyalists that C Company accused the UVF of trying to kill.
On 27 November, the UVF attempted to murder Mr Jackie Mahood at his Taxi Firm Office - he was shot a number of times in the head, but survived.