Double killers cleared of assault

Railway Bar, Poyntzpass: Scene of double murder

Two County Down men convicted of the murders of two friends have been acquitted of causing grievous bodily harm to a Banbridge man.

Stephen McClean, 32, and Noel McCready, 34, said following their acquittal in court on Tuesday, they intended to appeal the decision to keep them in jail.

McClean and McCready were jailed for the murders of life-long friends Philip Allen and Damien Trainor in Poyntzpass in County Armagh in 1998.

The Catholic and Protestant men were both shot dead in the Railway Bar in a murder for which the paramilitary Loyalist Volunteer Force said it was responsible.

Noel McCready was acquitted on assault charge

Last July McClean and McCready were eligible for early release under the terms of Good Friday Agreement political accord.

However, while out of prison on home leave in July, they were arrested and accused of attacking Keith Butler, 40, from Banbridge in County Down during an argument over a loyalist paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force flag.

On Tuesday the two men were acquitted at Belfast Crown Court of the assault charge.

Mr Butler had alleged that McClean and McCready, who had denied causing grievous bodily harm, were prominent in beating him almost unconscious.

Damien Trainor: Died in pub

At an earlier court hearing they had been cleared of attempting to murder Mr Butler.

A third man, Philip Harrison, 26, of Hillside Park, Banbridge, who earlier pleaded guilty to causing Mr Butler grievous bodily harm, will be sentenced later.

On Tuesday Mr Justice Girvan said that although Mr Butler was "clearly the victim of a vicious criminal assault", his "evidence was unsatisfactory on a number of important respects which go to undermine his general credibility".

Sentence appeal

After their re-arrest, the pair's early release licences on the double murder charge were revoked because they were viewed to have broken the terms of those licences.

Philip Allen: Gunned down

Although they have been acquitted of the assault charges, they must re-apply to the Sentence Review Commission to secure their release from their life sentences for the double killing.

A solicitor for McClean, formerly of Hillside Park, Banbridge, and McCready, formerly from Dickson Park in nearby Seapatrick, said the men intended to lodge such an appeal to the commission.

However, the circumstances of the murder case have changed since the summer. In October the government declared that it no longer recognised the ceasefire of the LVF.

This is likely to impact on the commission's view of the pair's appeal.

In June this year, the two men lost an appeal against their murder convictions.

On sentencing them to life last February, the judge said the murders had been "among the most heinous ever committed" in the province.