Mr Garfield Gilmour, the Ballymoney salesman who is accused of the firebomb murders of the three young Quinn brothers, claimed the UVF was behind the attack in July last year, his Belfast Crown Court trial heard yesterday.
The court, sitting in Coleraine, also heard that Mr Gilmour (24), from Newhill Park, Ballymoney, Co Antrim, claimed he had been forced to drive three UVF men on the murder mission, unaware of what he was getting involved in until it was too late.
But when he "twigged" what the men intended, Mr Gilmour said he "prayed I was wrong".
The claims were made during Mr Gilmour's police confessions to his role in the petrol bombing in the early hours of July 12th last year in which brothers Jason, aged nine, Mark (10) and Richard (11) perished.
In the interview notes, read to the court by detectives, Mr Gilmour also named three UVF men, Mr Johnny McKay, and brothers Raymond and Ivan Parke, as being behind the petrol bomb attack on the Quinns' Carnany Park home in Ballymoney. But Mr Gilmour always denied being a member of the loyalist gang himself.
In his police confession, Mr Gilmour claimed that two weeks before the attack, he heard Mr McKay and the Parkes joking that they were going to turn the Quinn boys' uncle, Mr Collie Quinn, into a "Guy Fawkes", but on the day of the attack it "twigged" on him the Quinn house was to be petrol bombed only after Mr McKay had pointed out the house to him and the Parkes.
A detective said Mr Gilmour claimed that in the early hours of July 12th last year, the Parkes came to his girlfriend's home and met Mr McKay, who was already there, and later Mr McKay asked him to drive them to the Carnany estate. Mr Gilmour said Mr McKay told him he had to see someone, and he felt threatened by the way he said it. He said when they got to the estate "Johnny pointed out a house and said that's the Quinns' or something like that".
It was then Mr Gilmour realised the UVF men were going to attack the Quinns' house.
"I twigged on when Johnny pointed to the house and I saw the bottle (petrol bomb) in Johnny's hand. I prayed that I was wrong," Mr Gilmour confessed to the police.
Mr Gilmour further claimed that while Mr McKay and Mr Raymond Parke went to petrolbomb the house, Mr Ivan Parke was left in the car with him "to make sure" he didn't drive away. "It crossed my mind, if I drove off they would get me and Christine (his girlfriend) and the wains," he told police.
"They disappeared for a short time a moment or so," Mr Gilmour told police, adding that he then spotted them behind some houses and "saw something glistening in Johnny's hand - a bottle".
Mr Gilmour said he then "heard a sound of breaking glass, like a window breaking. The two of them sprinted back to my car." "They were pumped up as if they had done a hard workout in the gym," said Mr Gilmour, who added they drove around the town for about 10 minutes before returning to the estate where he saw the Quinn house on fire.
The court also heard that although questioned by police, Mr McKay and the Parke brothers were released without charge. The trial continues today.