'An IRA boss wanted me dead - my best mate was killed beside me'

The survivor of a notorious knife murder that got the attention of the White House has told his story on television for the first time.

Brendan Devine's throat was slashed and he suffered a severe stab wound to the abdomen in a 2005 attack involving members of the Provisional IRA.

His friend Robert McCartney was killed. In the fallout McCartney's sisters and fiancée mounted a campaign for justice that won support from US President George W Bush and the European Parliament.

But the crime remains unsolved – and in a new BBC documentary series Devine tells of his guilt over the way the attack unfolded, and for the failure to catch the killers.

"I don't feel guilty for the actual happening but I do worry that my big mouth could have inflamed the situation, and got Bert killed," he said.

"It's terrible. To have to live with that and to think that you could be a reason for the death of your mate.

"That kills me."

The two men were stabbed near Market Street in Belfast city centre, after leaving Magennis's bar on 31 January 2005.

A former detective who worked on the case tells the documentary Murder in Belfast: Sisters Seeking Justice that 33-year-old Robert McCartney was "as innocent as they come".

Devine had been attacked with bottles and had his throat cut inside the bar, after an argument about an alleged rude gesture.

Despite as many as 70 people being in the pub at the time, no witnesses came forward to identify the attackers.

Pub CCTV was taken and destroyed and some forensic evidence appears to have been wiped away when the bar was cleaned with bleach.

The IRA initially denied involvement, but later issued a statement which said three of its members were involved, including two "high-ranking volunteers".

It said it had expelled them.

The murder came at a crucial time in the peace process in Northern Ireland.

The IRA was observing a ceasefire but had been accused of carrying out a series of high profile robberies, including the theft of £26.5m from the Northern Bank in Belfast.

McCartney's family launched a campaign to bring his attackers to justice.

The murder drew political attention from as far as the United States, where the sisters were invited to meet President George W Bush in Washington DC.

Murder in Belfast: Sisters Seeking Justice tells the story of the murder and the McCartney family's campaign – revealing that Devine believes they were stabbed because he named IRA leader Gerard "Jock" Davison outside the bar.

"I says 'who's Jock Davison? Did he do this to my throat?' And as soon as I said that name, four or five guys were in front of me, and they started shouting, `you're getting it, you're getting it, you're getting it'.

"I do and have struggled with guilt of slabbering outside the bar, of shouting at Jock Davison, of inflaming an already hostile situation," he said.

Devine says intimidation and rumours surrounding the murder led to intense stress which impacted his mental health at the time.

"I had loads of death threats and it was a wee bit daunting trying to juggle all this.

"So you're hearing all this, and then even top republicans were saying to me, 'you open your mouth about anything', more or less, 'you're in trouble'."

Davison, who was reported to be one of the most senior IRA figures in Belfast, was killed in a gun attack in Belfast in 2015.

Devine also tells the documentary series about being questioned by the IRA as they conducted a secret investigation parallel to the police inquiry.

He later testified at the 2008 trial of three men who faced charges in connection with the killing. All three were acquitted.

Devine told the trial that he met the IRA four times after the stabbings.

He said he only cooperated fully with the police after being given clearance by the IRA to do so.

In the witness box he also changed his account of what had happened on the night, but denied claims that was to "dovetail" with the account of another witness.

In the documentary - made by BBC Northern Ireland in association with RTÉ - Devine says he regrets that his evidence was not enough to secure a conviction.

"Am I going to be held responsible for not getting justice?" he asked.

"How am I going to get a result with the whole shenanigans of it?

"The whole lot. It was just a stressful time."