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Albert Ginger Baker

Albert "Ginger" Baker (born c. 1951) is a Northern Irish former loyalist and ex-British Army soldier who was convicted of four murders carried out by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), of which he was a leading member. He turned himself in to the police after throwing a hand grenade into a bus transporting Catholic workmen in east Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1973 which killed one man. He admitted to this killing and three other Catholics the previous year as well as 11 armed robberies. He was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for the four murders. Baker claimed he was a British Intelligence agent and member of the Military Reconnaissance Force (MRF). He gave evidence against his former UDA associates, including Ned McCreery in the murder trial of the "romper room" torture and killing of James McCartan on 3 October 1972. This made him Northern Ireland's first loyalist Supergrass. Although, McCreery had assisted in the torture of McCartan, Baker had actually carried out the shooting. Baker's testimony, however, proved inconsistent and was given with the aim of minimising his own role in the killing, so the judge dropped the charges against McCreery and the others. McCreery was also involved in the grenade attack. Baker contacted the John Stevens Inquiry team in 1989 and alleged that the security forces assisted in the majority of loyalist paramilitary attacks in the 1970s by providing the UDA and Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) with the necessary intelligence to facilitate them. He confirmed that loyalist paramilitaries had perpetrated the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings and stated that "half the assassinations in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s would not have been committed without RUC backing". Whilst in prison, he was interviewed by Labour MP Ken Livingstone; an edited transcript of their meeting appears in his book Livingstone's Labour.