Lottery Millionaire Linked to IRA Cop Killing

• Media links lottery winner Joe Clarke to IRA getaway role
• Kenova report reveals intelligence failures around 1988 police murder
• IRA internal debriefing identified suspects but no prosecutions followed

A Belfast, Northern Ireland resident who scooped £10.2 million (US$13.6 million) on the EuroMillions Lottery in 2013 has been identified in media reports as the suspected getaway driver in a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) operation that killed an off-duty police officer.

The Provisional IRA was a paramilitary organization, designated a terrorist group by the British government, that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland during the late-20th-century sectarian conflict known as the Troubles.

Joe Clarke, who died in 2023, has been named by journalists as the suspected driver for the IRA unit that murdered Constable John Larmour in his brother’s ice-cream shop in south Belfast on Oct. 11, 1988. Clarke isn’t named in the official Operation Kenova report, but reporting has linked him to the role described in the document.

Scappaticci served as second-in-command of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit, which was responsible for identifying and interrogating suspected informers within the organization.

Scappaticci, who also died in 2023, was linked by the investigation to at least 14 murders and 15 abductions carried out during the Troubles. The report concludes that he was involved in “serious and unjustifiable criminality” while being protected by British security services.

Civilians Targeted

According to the Kenova report, three IRA members took part in the Larmour killing: two gunmen and a driver. After the attack, the participants were internally debriefed by the IRA’s Internal Security Unit, and the information obtained was passed by Scappaticci to his British Army handlers and later shared with police intelligence officers.

Constable Larmour, a 42-year-old Protestant father of one, was standing in for his brother at Barnam’s ice-cream shop on Belfast’s Lisburn Road when two armed men entered shortly before closing time.

One of the gunmen shot Larmour dead, while the other opened fire on customers, seriously injuring two civilians.

The Kenova report doesn’t name any of those involved. It states that one of the gunmen is still alive but now suffers from dementia and couldn’t be questioned, while the other gunman is deceased. No one was ever charged with the murder.

The fact that civilians were targeted during the attack triggered an internal inquiry by Scappaticci’s unit.

Hooded Man

At the time of his 2013 lottery win, Clarke, a car mechanic, was described in media reports as a “popular figure” in west Belfast.

Clarke received £12,500 in compensation as part of a settlement related to his internment and mistreatment. He later received a formal apology from the British government, delivered only shortly before his death in 2023.