Wright, who split from the Ulster Volunteer Force in Portadown to form his new loyalist paramilitary splinter group, was murdered by the republican Irish National Liberation Army while serving an eight year sentence in the Maze prison in 1997.

A police spokesman told BBC News Online that because the RUC had only been handed photocopies of the pictures, any further investigations into their source would be difficult.

Asked whether the photographs appeared to have come from an offical source he said: "This matter has been the subject of an investigation.

"All we can say is that the photographs in police possession are still secure."

He added that there could be a number of possible sources of the photographs. For example, they had been distributed "within the legal profession" for use in proceedings, he said.