The wife and children were not particularly impressed when I told her I was going away

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"The wife and children were not particularly impressed when I told her I was going away, but I can't let him [John Stevens] down and I would never do that," said another officer "JS is someone who commands loyalty. At the end of the day he is loyal to us."Sir John, speaking during one of his regular visits to Belfast, recalled how on his previous inquiries, "there was a lot of work to discredit what we did. There was a worry at one stage about personal safety."One officer, Vince McFadden, 57, the former head of Surrey CID, retired more than four years ago But he was the first to volunteer to go back on the squad. The loyalist paramilitary try to scare us."He added: "I have had threats but it goes with the job. We spend 12 hours a day at the office and the rest of the time at the hotel, where we've been for more than eight months.He added: "There's no way we are going to be out in public - we are not going to put ourselves in a position where we could be accused of compromising the inquiry."The time spent in Ireland puts a strain on family life. A former Army intelligence officer who has made similar allegations was arrested last month and bailed in connection with possible breaches of the Official Secrets Act.A separate room, known as the "Newcastle Room", is now used to keep the thousands of documents. In the main incident room there are signs that the officers are dug in for a long stay.

On many of the desks there are pictures of children and wives. Mementoes of home life are kept next to the computer screens and maps. The 14 Metropolitan Police officers and three detectives from the Northumbria force who make up the team always travel with armed RUC drivers.One detective said: "We don't go out for a walk or go to the local pubs. At 6am the next day the Stevens team was due to arrest a group of loyalist paramilitaries, including Brian Nelson, the Army agent. This has led to allegations that the fire was started by the Army in an attempt to destroy secret files held on Nelson. The offices at the RUC premises at Carrickfergus, Antrim, where the incident room is located on the top floor, can be found by following the blue signs "Stevens Investigation - 3". On the entrance to the office is a large sign saying "no unauthorised entry".The first thing in the room that catches the eye is the vast iron safe.

Inside are vital documents and the charred remains of material damaged in an earlier "mystery" blaze.The fire broke out on the night of 10 January 1990. He has also admitted that he was the UDA quartermaster who supplied the guns used in the Finucane killing and later disposed of at least one of the weapons.The Stevens 3 team failed in legal efforts last October to retrieve material from a Belfast journalist, Ed Maloney, about a 1990 interview with Stobie.The Stevens 3 team has spent the past three monthstrawling documentation and tape recordings, interviewing RUC officers and informers and having huge quantities of items forensically tested. Its painstaking work has uncovered further material to support Stobie's allegations. Detectives have also obtained evidence to pinpoint which UDA men were responsible for the killing.The pressures for the detectives working on such an intense and politically sensitive case are immense. The Stevens team has now also identified a six-man loyalist team it believes is responsible for committing the murder. Three other men from Belfast have been charged in relation with terrorist documents.Stobie, 48, caused something of a sensation at a remand hearing last June when he said that he had been a police informer for Special Branch and on the night of the death of Mr Finucane had informed his handlers on two occasions by telephone that a person was to be shot.