Murders linked to taxi driver killer Clifford McKeown run into 'double figures’

Watch here as our correspondent Sharon O'Neill report spoke to the children of murdered taxi driver Michael McGoldrick for the first time.

Loyalist killer Clifford McKeown who gunned down a Catholic taxi driver as a "birthday gift" to a terror boss – was behind at least 10 other murders.

And he was a Special Branch agent for most of his time as a paramilitary.

That’s according to several well-placed sources with indepth knowledge of the loyalist’s activities.

In 2003 he was convicted of murdering Catholic taxi driver Michael McGoldrick at the height of the Drumcree stand-off

Lured to his death – the 31-year-old was shot five times in the head on a rural road outside Lurgan in 1996.

Micheal McGoldrick with his wife Sadie and daughter Emma on his graduation day.

His wife Sadie was six months pregnant with their son Andrew at the time.

Their daughter Emma was only seven.

Both have deciding to speak out for the first time to UTV.

"I was my dad’s shadow, we were very close. I think it was also strange I don’t remember that I don’t have that,remember that, I don’t have that in my brain anymore, that it has also been taken," says Emma

‘’I was robbed of a father. I was robbed of a relationship with my father. Simple things like watching the football, doing normal stuff that fathers and sons do."

Andrew was born just 3 months after his fathers death.

Clifford McKeown died last week – just months after being released from prison. He was the longest serving paramilitary prisoner in Northern Ireland.

He was convicted of Mr McGoldrick’s murder while already in prison serving a sentence for possessing firearms.

Widow Sadie told UTV she was numb when she heard the news.

Asked if McKeown’s death has given her closure, she replied: ‘’No, I don’t think you ever get closure. It is something that is going to be with me for the rest of my life."

McKeown’s brother Trevor was convicted of the murder of 18-year-old Bernadette Martin in Aghalee in July 1997.

The gun used to shot the teenager in her boyfriend’s home – the same one used to kill Mr McGoldrick.

Security sources have told UTV it is believed older brother Clifford was the one who pulled the trigger.

We have been told by those in the know Clifford McKeown was a special branch agent and had killed more people than initially known.

When approached for comment the PSNI said: "The Police Service of Northern Ireland does not comment on intelligence matters and no inference should be taken from this."

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