March 27, 2003 Life Sentence for Killer of Taxi Driver
by Liam Clarke

ONE of Ulster's most brutal and prolific sectarian killers has received a life sentence for the murder of a taxi driver. Clifford McKeown was sentenced on evidence from a journalist to whom he boasted of killing the young Catholic as a "birthday present" for Billy "King Rat" Wright, founder of the Loyalist Volunteer Force.

The journalist, Nick Martin-Clark, had promised McKeown confidentiality but decided to break his undertaking after hearing the grisly details of the shooting. The Londoner's account of the meeting, which was printed in The Sunday Times in December 1999, sparked a police inquiry that eventually led to the trial.

Martin-Clark faced 30 hours of cross-examination as McKeown's defence lawyers attempted to undermine his credibility. He must now live under a witness protection scheme for the rest of his life.

Martin-Clark approached McKeown, in jail for armed robbery, in an attempt to gather information on alleged collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries. During five prison visits, he gained the terrorist's confidence. McKeown boasted that he was one of seven loyalist hitmen in an area of Mid-Ulster known as the "murder triangle".

Martin-Clark said: "He expressed no remorse. He talked very casually about the kind of guns you needed for different kinds of killing . . . He enjoyed boasting about it."

McKeown gave graphic details of the killing of Michael McGoldrick, a Scottish-born graduate who was working as a taxi driver to support his family while he found a long-term job. McKeown's gang called a mainly Catholic taxi firm and ordered a car. They then rang McKeown to tell him the "package is on its way".

McKeown told Martin-Clark how he had pumped four bullets into his randomly-chosen victim's head and a fourth into his neck, details that helped the police and the court determine his guilt when they were compared to forensic records.

Martin-Clark agonised over the promise of confidentiality McKeown had demanded. He said: "In the end, my duty as a citizen was more important."