Supergrass legs it to England with new I.D.
From the 26 October 2008 edition of the Sunday World, by John Cassidy:

A LOYALIST ‘supergrass’ has been described in court as a “high profile and active terrorist’’ in the
ruthless Mid-Ulster UVF brigade.

And fatboy slim Mark Burcombe has been linked by a PSNI Criminal Investigation Department intelligence file to ONE murder and TWO attempted murders.
The Sunday World can reveal the the 27-year-old UVF terrorist was arrested in connection with other loyalist paramilitary activity in the Mid-Ulster area. Yet despite knowing about Burcombe’s “active’’ involvement with the banned terror group, the Public Prosecution Service and the PSNI agreed to allow Burcombe to enter the ‘supergrass’ system in return for giving evidence against his co-accused Steven Revels.

Details of Burombe’s involvement in the banned terror group have been revealed in court by lawyers acting for Revels. His defence team are currently locked in a legal battle with the PPS over the disclosure of intelligence material relating to Burcombe who is in a witness protection scheme. He has agreed to give evidence against Revels in return for pleading guilty to the lesser charge of conspiracy to commit GBH to
Andrew Robb.

Burcombe made a deal with the PPS under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 to turn ‘supergrass’ against Revels.

As a result, Burcombe was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison but with time served on remand he
is now a free man living under the assumed identity of ‘Scott Adams’ in England.
Discovery
Under the deal, Burcombe was to wipe the slate clean about his involvement in all crimes. However, lawyers for Revels said Burcombe has been linked by police intelligence to one murder and two attempted murders.
This includes:

* the murder of Catholic man Robert Hamill in 1997. Burcombe had been arrested and quizzed three times over the killing;

* the attempted murder of ex-UVF inmate Ephraim ‘Effy’ Kerr in 2000 at his Granville Road home in Portadown;

* the attempted murder of Ryan Greenaway in the Killycomain estate in Portadown.

Lawyers also said Burcombe was linked by police intelligence to other UVF activities in the Mid-Ulster
area. He was quizzed by police over the discovery of guns found in a yard owned by Richard Jameson, the then UVF’s brigadier in Mid- Ulster. It was Jameson who took Burcombe and several others involved in the Hamill murder to the UVF’s Shankill Road headquarters in 1997 to be “initiated’’ into the terror group.
Burcombe was also linked by police intelligence to the baseball attack inside Portadown FC’s Shamrock
Park social club in December in 1999 following tensions with the rival LVF.
Lawyers for Revels told Belfast Crown Court that on the night of the murders of Andrew Robb and David
McIlwaine, Burcombe had been seen in the company of Philip ‘Philly’ Lunt and Wayne ‘Squinty’ Lunt who
were known to police as “members’’ of the UVF in Mid-Ulster.
The Sunday World has learned that Burcombe lived in a house with the Lunt brothers in Lisburn,
Co. Antrim.

However, when Burcombe handed himself in to police in 2005, the Lunt brothers travelled to Amsterdam and lived there for a period of time.

The court heard the brothers were among 12 people along with another man identified in court as
‘Shilly’ who were named on a target list but their names had now been redacted. Revels’ lawyer are seeking
access to all relevant intelligence material held by PSNI Special Branch, British Military Intelligence and MI5 on Burcombe’s involvement with the UVF revealed. They argued that the intelligence could affect
the credibility of his evidence at Revels’ trial for the double murders on November 10.
Paul McIlwaine, the campaigning father of murder David McIlwaine, told the Sunday World that he found himself a reluctant supporter of the defence applications. “I can see where the Revels defence team are coming from. These intelligence reports will either prove or disprove Burcombe’s credibility as a
witness.”
Involvement
“If the security forces didn’t have intelligence on him as a UVF member, then they wouldn’t be arresting him for UVF activities in the first place?
“As far as I know, he has made no reference to his involvement to UVF activities in Mid-Ulster in his ‘supergrass’ statement.
“So he hasn’t come clean about his involvement with the UVF, about his involvement in a murder, two
attempted murders, and other UVF activity.
“When this case goes to trial, Revels defence will discredit Burcombe’s testimony and we will end up
with no one convicted of David and Andrew’s murders.
“We don’t believe Burcombe has told the truth. The police don’t believe he has told the truth so why
are the PPS prepared to go ahead with this deal? It is a disgrace.
“When he applied for bail in November 2005, the Crown told the High Court that police believed Burcombe
to be a member of the UVF yet he has never been charged with being a member of the UVF.’’
The High Court bail application was denied by the then Mr Justice Girvan who said Burcombe had “made no attempt to report what was an appalling crime.’’ He added: “The degree of violence at the scene and the fact that this appears to have been part of an internecine war between loyalist paramilitaries…points to a propensity to violence of an extreme nature.’’