HE lives on his own behind bulletproof windows with CCTV cameras watching his home to prevent being killed.But after 10 years of fighting to expose his son's killers as Special Branch agents, Raymond McCord insists that his journey for justice is not over.The story of one man's campaign to bring his son's killers to justice has been published in a new book.Justice for Raymond exposes the extraordinary extent that the RUC Special Branch used to protect Mark Haddock and the Mount Vernon Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) from prosecution despite involvement in more than a dozen murders, including 22-yeard-old Raymond McCord.But the book goes further, accusing Unionist politicians of deliberately snubbing Raymond McCord pleas for support in bringing his son's killers to justice. "I believe one of the reasons Unionist politicians shunned me was because I wasn't a member of a paramilitary organization," he says.While McCord's father Hector had been an Ulster Defense Association (UDA) member, he insists that he was never interested in joining any paramilitary grouping and recalls his teenage friendship with hunger striker Bobby Sands."From a very young age I had Catholic and Protestant friends, so there was no way I was going to join the paramilitaries, even though that was what was expected of you," McCord says."I respect people having their own political beliefs, but I don't believe anyone has the right to force their beliefs on you through the barrel of a gun."Myself and Bobby Sands grew up on the Rathcoole estate together. We went to discos together and were in the same football team."We had a great team spirit, there was no politics or sectarianism. There were guys on the team who went on to join the UVF, UDA and IRA while others like me took nothing to do with anyone."But when we were kids we were all mates. The face staring out of Republican murals is not the Sandsy I knew.Former shipyard worker McCord admits to having been a street fighter throughout his life and to having "stepped outside the law" at times."I've never claimed to be an angel, but I was no bully either and if someone hurt my family, then I'd hurt them back," he says. "That's the way I was brought up and I make no apologies for it."McCord's refusal to bow down led to conflict with both the UDA and UVF. In the 1990s the UDA twice tried to kill him after he beat up the organization's south east Antrim brigadier."I saw John Gregg bullying a guy in a bar so I knocked him out. I hit him so many times I broke both my hands," recalls McCord."He went to the police and had me charged, but when it came to court he refused to give evidence against me."Weeks later a UDA gang broke both McCord's legs.However, his life changed forever on Sunday, November 10, 1997 when police arrived at his York Street home to break the news that his eldest son had been beaten to death."I just broke down and cried when they told me Raymond had been murdered," McCord says."To this day I can't remember what hymns were played at his funeral because I was just numb."In the years that followed the heartbroken father attempted to prove that his son's killers were being protected by Special Branch."No one wanted to know, especially Unionist politicians. I was labeled a crank," he says. "Protestants didn't want to believe that collusion took place against Protestants." The campaign to expose his son's killers led to his family paying a heavy price, with countless deaths threats and attacks on their homes, including his son's grave being desecrated on three occasions.However McCord gained an invaluable ally when he approached Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan in 2003."She was my last chance," McCord says. "I had nowhere else to go, but Nuala O'Loan believed in me and gradually her office was able to show that I'd been telling the truth all along."One of the most satisfying days of my life was being there on January 22, 2007 to witness Nuala O'Loan exposing the fact that Special Branch had allowed Haddock and his gang to commit up to a dozen murders."It showed that 10 years of my life hadn't been wasted, and it showed that police had allowed innocent Catholics and Protestants to be killed in cold blood."The 55-year-old says it is ironic that he received more support from Nationalists than politicians from within the Unionist community - including help from the Irish American community.In 2007 McCord was among a number of families whose loved ones were killed as a result of alleged security force collusion who were invited to the White House.Among those in the U.S. who supported the Protestant father in his campaign to highlight his son's murder was Irish National Caucus founder Father Sean McManus and the Ancient Order of Hibernian. In January McCord took another unusual step by addressing the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis (convention) in his father's Orange Order collerette."I wore my father's collerette to show people in the south that not all Protestants and Loyalists were bigots and that there were just as many Republican bigots," McCord says."Just as collusion wasn't one sided, neither was bigotry."Raymond McCord says that one of the proudest moments in his life came while canvassing during last year's Assembly elections."Certain Unionist politicians told me I'd no mandate to speak for anyone, so I decided to stand in the Assembly elections," he says."I got 1,320 votes - that was 1,320 people saying I was right to fight for justice for Raymond."I don't care whether the people who voted for me were Catholic or Protestant. I just want to thank them and to promise them the same thing I promised Raymond when he died."I'll not rest until the men that killed my son are brought to justice.