Rogue Royal Marine fed Johnny Adair's UFF info on republican targets

Derek Adgey (pictured here for the first time) - a member of an elite Commando unit known as ‘The Bootnecks’ was based in Fort Whiterock in west Belfast.

He was jailed for four years for assisting Johnny Adair’s ‘C’ Coy in its ruthless loyalist murder campaign.

And after his release, he went to work with an armed protection force in Iraq, until it emerged he had previously been convicted in Northern Ireland under the Terrorism Act.

But today former loyalist terror chief - Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair - broke a 30 year silence and spoke publicly for the first time, about his admiration for the renegade Royal Marine who colluded with his terror team.

“As far as I’m concerned, Derek Adgey was a hero.” Johnny Adair said this week.

Adair maintained he has an enduring respect for the British Commando who chose the black balaclava of the UDA before the Green Beret of the Royal Marines.

He said: “Derek Adgey had a very different upbringing from me, but he was - and still is - a loyalist hero. And not just to me, but to all the loyalists who knew him.”

And he added: “Despite being a serving member of the Royal Marines, Derek Adgey went out his way to help those taking the war to the IRA.” As a result of information supplied by Derek Adgey, senior republicans Martin Lynch and Brian Gillen were directly targeted for murder by Johnny Adair’s infamous ‘C’ Coy.

And former MLA and Stormont Speaker Alex Maskey - only last week welcomed the new King and Queen to Northern Ireland - also came within a whisker of losing his life as a result of Derek Adgey’s double-dealing with loyalists.

UFF gunmen, using information supplied by Derek Adgey, attacked Maskey’s family home.

Alan Lundy (39) - a father of five and a former republican prisoner - was shot dead by UFF gunmen while carrying out security improvements at the Sinn Fein man’s home.

Alex Maskey managed to hide in an upstairs bedroom, while his wife and children escaped through the kitchen.

Detailed intelligence given to the UFF prior to the attack was supplied by Royal Marine Derek Adgey.

But silver-spooned serviceman and high-level loyalist agent came a cropper when he confided in a commando colleague.

As the soldiers watched the TV evening news revealing details of a loyalist terror attack in Belfast, Adgey whispered to a fellow Marine: “I gave Johnny the info about that.”

Reflecting on his connection to rogue Royal Marine Derek Adgey, former ‘C’ Coy Commander Johnny Adair told the Sunday World: “Derek Adgey will always be a hero to me.

“My initial reaction when I first heard a Royal Marine had approached us, I thought it’s a trap. I even mulled over whether it was an MI5 enterprise, but I was wrong, Derek was 100% genuine.

“I did all the checks and I looked into his background. And I spoke to him at length and although he didn’t realise it, I was actually interrogating him.

“I remember thinking, someone from the army just doesn’t contact you like this, but that’s exactly what happened.

“He passed every test I set him. I soon realised, he wasn’t a member of the Secret Service or MI6 or anything like that. He was just a good man who wanted to help us deal with the IRA.

“I remember questioning him about why a soldier would even do this? But he explained it all to me. It was around the time of the IRA sniper assassinations in south Armagh.

“Derek was a clean-cut lad who came from a good background. But he still had the soldier instinct and he sought me out. He wanted the IRA killed rather than innocent Catholics.

“Before Derek came along loyalists never went into Catholic west Belfast. It was out of bounds for us.

“But as a result of Derek and other contacts, we began to penetrate it.

“Our targets didn’t come much higher that Gerry Adams, Brian Gillen, Martin Lynch or Freddie Scappaticci. It was the top we went for.

“I could see how proud Derek was of what we were doing. But in the end, pride was his downfall.

“He loved watching the news especially when details came on about a UFF operation. But he made the mistake of telling one of his Royal Marine colleagues, ‘I gave the info for that to Johnny’.

“And then when he was questioned about it, he threw his hands up and admitted it almost right away.

“He was genuine in his commitment to Queen and country, but he was hampered in his work by people who wanted to kill him and his colleagues.

“His unit got biffed - once with a coffee jar and once with a rocket - Derek threw the head up and he decided to do something about it.

“He just couldn’t come to terms with people abusing him in the street and spitting at him as he went past.

Royal Marine Derek William Adgey was still serving at a military base in republican west Belfast, when aged 24, he was arrested in connection with supplying sensitive information to loyalist terrorists.

A team of top detectives - already plotting the downfall of ‘C’ Coy boss Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair - were asked to investigate the Malone Road Marine, suspected of being ‘C’ Coy’s man inside the Security Forces.

At first, he denied all knowledge of Johnny Adair and his ‘C’ Coy hit team. But he soon realised the game was up and admitted it.

In October 1995, Derek Adgey appeared before the Crown Court in Belfast to answer 22 charges in total.

He admitted 10 counts of soliciting murder, nine of recording information and three of collecting information.

Sentencing him to four years in jail, a Diplock Court Judge told Adgey he sympathised with his frustration over IRA terrorism, but he had broken the law.

At the end of the trial, a MoD press officer confirmed Derek Adgey had been discharged from the military following his arrest two years before.

One of three brothers - two of whom joined the Royal Marines - Derek Adgey had been brought up in Belfast’s upmarket Malone area.

The family’s wealthy neighbours were astonished when the family home was raided following Derek Adgey’s arrest.

They looked on wide-eyed in disbelief, as soldiers and police searched every inch of the house and extensive gardens surrounding the property on Balmoral Avenue.

In an interview carried out before he died, Dave Hunt, a recently deceased close neighbour of the Adgey family, told the Sunday World: “Malone had never seen anything like it the day they raided the Adgey home.

“Soldiers and police were everywhere. The Adgeys were very respectable and Mrs. Adgey regularly attended St. Briget’s Catholic Church on Derryvolgie Avenue. “Derek Adgey’s mum was from Chile and his dad John ran a successful steel shutter company in north Belfast. And he was also deeply involved in Boy’s Brigade Football.” he said.

But one of Derek Adgey’s former school mates told us, it was while he was a still pupil at Methodist College, he first developed sympathies with the Ulster loyalist cause.

And one of them this week recalled going on holiday to Tenerife in the Canary Islands with the future Royal Marine.

“We were in a disco in Las Americas with other lads from Belfast, when the DJ asked for a big cheer for the Irish lads. But Derek shouted up that he wasn’t from Ireland. He insisted on telling the DJ he was from Ulster!”

“The DJ asked the audience if anyone had ever heard of a country called Ulster and everyone laughed.”

And he added: “That was the first indication that Derek had developed loyalist sympathies. It developed from there.”

Now aged 51, Derek William Adgey, lives outside Northern Ireland.

hjordan.media@btinternet.com