New blow to 'supergrass' cases after Northern Ireland judge brands evidence of two UVF informers as lies
The resurrected "supergrass" system aimed at convicting still-active terrorists in Northern Ireland has been dealt a blow when a judge freed 12 Ulster loyalists who stood trial for 21 weeks on the word of two informers from the ranks of the Ulster Volunteer Force.
Mr Justice Gillen described the evidence provided by brothers Ian and Robert Stewart as being "infected with lies" and declared 12 of the 13 in the dock at Belfast crown court – charged with a series of crimes, including murder – not guilty.
Among those found not guilty was north Belfast man Mark Haddock, who had been accused of being the UVF commander behind the murder of rival Ulster Defence Assaociation loyalist Tommy English at his home on Halloween in 2000.
The judge branded the Stewart brothers "ruthless criminal and unflinching terrorists" and that he was not convinced they had turned over a new leaf and decided to tell the truth. During the trial it emerged that one of the Stewarts was a drug addict.
The men acquitted of English's murder were: Haddock, 43; David Miller, 40; Alex Wood, 35; John Bond, 45; Darren Moore, 42; Ronald Bowe, 35; Samuel Higgins, 36; Jason Loughlin, 36; and Philip Laffin, 34.
They were also cleared of other charges, including false imprisonment, kidnapping, UVF membership, wounding, possessing firearms and hijacking.
The others acquitted were William Hinds, 47, David McCrum, 32, and Mark Thompson, 37.
The only man to be convicted – 36-year-old Neil Pollock, from Belfast – was found guilty of possessing a sledgehammer intended for use in terrorism.
One man who had been on trial had previously walked free from court, after Gillen ruled last month he had no case to answer.
This was the first supergrass trial to be held in Northern Ireland since the system collapsed in the mid-80s, leading to the release of dozens of IRA, INLA and loyalist suspects who were held on remand on the word of informers from within their terror organisations.
Wednesday's verdict could have major implications for two pending cases where the prosecution is relying on other loyalist supergrasses to secure convictions. These include a case against a number of Mid-Ulster loyalists accused of murdering the Sunday World journalist Martin O'Hagan in September 2001. A self-confessed member of the LVF, Neil Hyde, is currently in protective custody waiting to give evidence against former colleagues he claims played a central role in the reporter's murder.
During the 21-week trial, loyalists staged protests against the mass prosecution, which they have claimed was solely based on the evidence of "paid perjurors" – a phrase the UVF first used in the 1980s to portray a number of supergrasses whose testimony put dozens of loyalists in prison.
Banners have been slung across main routes into loyalist districts from a new organisation called "Families Against Supergrass Trials". They have accused the Police Service of Northern Ireland of operating double-standards, claiming the police seem interested only in investigating past crimes committed by loyalists rather than republicans.
At the height of the first supergrass system, between 1982 and 1985, 25 men turned Queen's Evidence. The loyalist and republican informers put hundreds of suspects behind bars for dozens of murders.
In the case of IRA supergrass Christopher Black, 22 of his former comrades were jailed for a total of more than 4,000 years. But when the system collapsed in 1985 – after a judge ruled that another informer's testimony was "unworthy" – almost all of those who had been on remand in Belfast's Crumlin Road jail were freed.