Mark Fulton (c. 1961 – 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 (née Prentice), 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. Jackson, one of the alleged leaders of the gang which carried out the 1974 Dublin car bombings, became the commander of the UVF's Mid-Ulster Brigade in July 1975. Four days later, Boyle was blown up after placing a bomb on the Miami Showband's minibus after the band was stopped at a bogus checkpoint by UVF gunmen, and three band members shot dead.
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" he even had an image of Wright tattooed over his heart.
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. He was very violent and had a quick temper. Wright was the only person who was able to control him. A Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) detective who knew both of them said that whenever they were stopped by the police in the 1990s, Wright was "coolness personified", while Fulton would rage, shout and make threats.
Although he was brought up in the Church of Ireland religion, Fulton was a follower of the Reverend Ian Paisley, founder and moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster. In appearance Fulton was heavily tattooed and was known for his habit of always wearing a waistcoat.
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. The unit initially welcomed the Combined Loyalist Military Command ceasefire in October 1994; however, things were to change drastically over the next few years.