A Loyalist hitman arrested in Sussex has pleaded guilty to the murder of a prominent Belfast solicitor.

Ex-police informer Ken Barrett, 41, yesterday admitted to Belfast Crown Court that he was one of two gunmen who shot father-of-three Patrick Finucane at his home in the city in February 1989.

The murder became one of the most controversial crimes of the Northern Ireland Troubles after claims that police and military intelligence colluded with the paramilitaries who carried out the shooting.

Barrett was arrested last year at a so-called Loyalist safe house in East Sussex.

Police from the Northern Ireland, Metropolitan and Sussex forces also arrested a woman at the house but she was later released.

Police have not revealed the address to protect Barrett's family.

The Government was under pressure today to order a public inquiry into the murder.

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy set up inquiries earlier this year into three other contentious murders in which security force collusion was alleged but put an inquiry into the Finucane affair on hold until after the case.

Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir John Stevens found evidence of collaboration in a report issued last April.

Retired Canadian judge Peter Cory backed his assessment, citing evidence that MI5, the Army and the RUC Special Branch were all aware of the plot but did nothing to save the lawyer.

Officers from Sir John's team, posing as international drug dealers, obtained an alleged murder confession from the north Belfast loyalist.

They were told Barrett murdered enough victims in a sectarian killing spree to rival Britain's most notorious serial killers.

He will be told on Friday how long he must serve of a mandatory life sentence.

But because the shooting was carried out before the April 1998 Good Friday Agreement, he may be eligible for release as early as next May if he guarantees to stay away from all paramilitary involvement.