Robin King
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robin Andrew King,[1] (born 7 July 1966[2][3]) is a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary leader who served as the commander of the Ulster Protestant Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). A close friend of the organisation's founder Billy Wright, King took over as leader following the death of Mark "Swinger" Fulton, who had succeeded Wright when he was assassinated by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in December 1997.
King was born in Lurgan, County Armagh, on 7 July 1966. Despite being born a Catholic, King became involved in Ulster loyalism in his teenage years.[4] As a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) which he had joined in the late 1980s, King was close to Billy Wright with whom he shares a birthday. Wright took over as leader of the UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade during the early 1990s upon the retirement of its commander Robin Jackson. King served as the Mid-Ulster Brigade's Director of Operations.[5]
Imprisonment
In 1994, King was given a 16-year prison sentence for conspiracy to murder and sent to the Maze Prison.[6][7] He was released after serving four and a half years of the sentence.[7] Meanwhile, in 1996 Wright formed the breakaway Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) after he and his Portadown unit were stood down by the UVF leadership following the unauthorised killing of taxi driver Michael McGoldrick by Wright's men while the UVF were on ceasefire.[8] King switched his allegiance to Wright's new organisation. When Wright was gunned down inside the Maze by members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), King assumed the role of Officer Commanding (OC) the LVF prisoners.[2][7]
During King's imprisonment, another member of the LVF, David Keys, was killed in the jail on 15 March 1998. Keys, a 23-year-old living in Banbridge who had served with the Royal Irish Regiment and who had been shot and injured by the UVF in 1996 in his native Cregagh area of Belfast, was on remand for killing two friends in Poyntzpass.[9] Initially treated as a suicide (Keys was found hanging with his wrists slashed), a post mortem revealed that he had been beaten severely about the body and injured on his hands and feet before being killed.[9] Police speculated that Keys had been killed after the LVF became suspicious that he was co-operating with the police in their inquiries into the double murder.[9] King was arrested and tried for Keys' murder but acquitted in 2000.[8]
