Ciaran Barnes

Ciaran revealed how a convicted wife killer was selected for a top post in the Orange Order - a Christian organisation with tens of thousands of members across Northern Ireland. Within three days of the expose Stephen Fulton was forced to resign.

He detailed how MI5 agent Dennis McFadden infiltrated a justice campaign set up to quash the controversial murder convictions of two republicans. The Sunday Life investigation now forms a key part of a renewed appeal by Stephen McConville and John Paul Wootton and has led to the Criminal Cases Review Commission re-opening their case.

He also revealed how the UVF terror gang had a spy at the heart of the government-run Legal Services Agency (LSA). Stuart Taylor provided addresses to the group from the LSA computer database in return for his own drug debts being cleared. The infiltration led to a major security review and an update of LSA computer systems at a huge cost to the taxpayer.