Mark Fulton

Mark Fulton ( – 10 June 2002) was a Northern Irish loyalist. He was the leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), having taken over its command following the assassination of Billy Wright in the Maze Prison in 1997 by members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA).

Fulton was alleged by journalist Susan McKay to have carried out a dozen sectarian killings in the 1990s. He also allegedly organized the murder of a Catholic lawyer, Rosemary Nelson, in 1999 while he was out of prison on compassionate leave. In 2002, he was found hanged in his cell at Maghaberry Prison, an apparent suicide. He was awaiting trial having been charged with conspiracy to murder a man from a rival loyalist paramilitary organisation. At the time of his death, Fulton was married with two children.

Early years Mark Fulton was born in Portadown, County Armagh in 1961, one of the children of Jim Fulton, a former British soldier who worked as a window cleaner. His mother, Sylvia , came from a family of wealthy car dealers. Fulton grew up in the working-class Protestant Killycomain area.

Following the outbreak of the Troubles in the late 1960s, Fulton's father became a member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). According to journalist Susan McKay, senior Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) members Robin "the Jackal" Jackson and Harris Boyle were frequent visitors to the Fulton home in the early 1970s.

Ulster Volunteer Force Fulton left school early and promptly joined the Mid-Ulster UVF, being sworn in at the age of 15. According to Sean McPhilemy, Fulton's early activity included being part of the UVF gang that opened fire on a Craigavon mobile sweetshop on 28 March 1991, killing two teenaged girls and one man, all Catholics. The attack was allegedly planned by Robin Jackson.

In the early 1990s, Billy Wright, also from Portadown, took over command of the UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade from Jackson. The Mid-Ulster Brigade, founded in 1972 by its first commander, Billy Hanna, operated mainly in the Lurgan and Portadown areas. Fulton soon became Wright's closest associate and right-hand man and had an "extreme fixation and obsession over Wright";

Fulton was alleged to have perpetrated twelve sectarian killings in the 1990s, and reportedly was implicated in many other attacks. His victims were often questioned about their religion prior to their killings, and sometimes they were killed in front of their families.

The Mid-Ulster Brigade called themselves the "Brat Pack", which journalist Martin O'Hagan of the Sunday World altered to "Rat Pack". After the nickname of "King Rat" was given to Wright by local Ulster Defence Association (UDA) commander Robert John Kerr as a form of pub bantering, O'Hagan took to describing Wright by that term. This soubriquet was thereafter used by the media, much to Wright's fury. This led him to issue threats against O'Hagan and all journalists who worked for the newspaper. however, things were to change drastically over the next few years.

Loyalist Volunteer Force Following the order given in August 1996 by the UVF's Brigade Staff (Belfast leadership) for Wright and the Portadown unit of the Mid-Ulster Brigade to stand down, Fulton remained loyal to Wright and defied the order.

Fulton, as Wright's deputy, assumed effective control of the LVF when Wright was sent to the Maze Prison in March 1997, and his relationship with Kerr, who had relocated to the LVF's Portadown stronghold, soon ended. Fulton, who continued to advocate a closer alliance with the UDA, reasoned that the group would be more prepared to co-operate with the LVF if their dissident former brigadier was not involved and so before long Fulton and his cousin Gary, also a leading LVF member, began to threaten Kerr, resulting in the Kerr family fleeing to England. Not long after this, on 13 May, Fulton was said by McPhilemy to have been responsible for the abduction and murder of 61 year-old civil servant and GAA official Séan Brown, who was kidnapped in Bellaghy before being murdered in Randalstown.

When Wright was shot dead by the INLA in December 1997, in a prison van while being taken to the Maze's visitor block, Fulton assumed control of the LVF. In the immediate aftermath he attempted to minimise local violence as youths sympathetic to Wright amassed on Portadown's loyalist estates preparing to riot in protest at the killing of their leader and local hero. Unlike Wright, Fulton had always been on good personal terms with UDA chief Johnny Adair as the two had socialized together on and off since the early 1990s. Fulton was deeply affected by Wright's death, and reportedly spent many nights alone by his grave.

Rosemary Nelson killing Fulton was arrested in 1998 after shooting at an off-duty soldier in Portadown. He was heavily intoxicated at the time and sentenced to four years imprisonment. While he was out on compassionate leave in early 1999, he allegedly organised the killing of Catholic lawyer Rosemary Nelson. Friends claimed he had expressed suicidal thoughts due to both his failure to recover from his close friend Wright's death, as well as his fears that he was suffering from stomach cancer. Some reports suggested his unstable mental state had seen him stood down as leader several weeks before his death, with the LVF's power base transferred to Belfast. He was also afraid that rival loyalist inmates wished to kill him inside the prison.

At the time of his death, Fulton had been awaiting trial, having been charged with conspiracy to murder Rodney Jennett, a member of a rival loyalist paramilitary organisation, in connection with an ongoing feud. He left behind his wife, Louise and two children, Lee and Alana. His funeral was attended by 500 mourners, including a number of senior loyalist paramilitaries, including Johnny Adair and John White, who acted as pallbearers alongside Fulton's brother Jim and son, Lee. After a service at St Columba's Parish Church, he was interred in Kernan Cemetery in Portadown.