Official title: The theft of the UDR weapon in 1987
What this chapter covers
Chapter 13 traces the history of one of the weapons used in the murder: a 9mm Browning pistol that had been stolen from army premises in 1987. The chapter title describes it as the UDR weapon.
Key points
The pistol had been taken in a theft of weapons from Palace Barracks in Holywood, County Down, in August 1987, and later came into the hands of the UDA. After the murder the gun was recovered in Belfast in 1989 and matched to the killing. The chapter examines how the weapon was stolen, who was involved, and what the security forces knew about where it went.
Why it matters
The weapon's path connects to William Stobie, the UDA quartermaster who was also an RUC Special Branch agent and who handled the pistol before the murder. De Silva's conclusions about that link are in chapter 22. Cameron's statement on publication day summarised the report as finding collusion in "supplying a weapon and facilitating its later disappearance".