Call for release of bar killers

Friends Damien Trainor (l) and Philip Allen (r) were shot dead in the bar

The release of the killers of two men in County Armagh has been called for by a DUP member in North Antrim.

Stephen McLean and Noel McCready are serving life sentences for killing friends Damien Trainor and Philip Allen in a Poyntzpass bar in 1998.

The DUP's Gary Blair said other paramilitary prisoners had been freed under the Agreement and so should they.

The DUP said it is not party policy the men should be freed and Mr Blair was speaking in a personal capacity.

"When the early releases came, for the mainstream groups if you like, in 1998 the prisoners were released, all but two," Mr Blair said.

"I think the DUP and any other right thinking party would want to see the law applied with total impartiality - right across the board," he said.

Mr Blair, the press officer for the Ballymoney branch of the party, is himself a former prisoner who served a sentence for his part in the loyalist murder of a Sinn Fein election candidate.

The two men, one Catholic and the other Protestant, were killed as they had a drink in the Railway Bar in the town.

Ethel Allen, the mother of Mr Allen, said she was surprised that such a call had been made.

The friends were killed in the Railway Bar in Poyntzpass

"Whenever I first heard it I would never have dreamed they would be looking the two boys out - it just never crossed my mind," she said.

"It's just devastated the whole family that the LVF can say they are going on ceasefire to get the boys out, but who says they are going to stay on ceasefire.

"I think they should be given six months 'til a year to see if they are keeping 'til it and I don't think the boys should get out 'til after that.

The call has been condemned by the SDLP's John Dallat.

"The ink has hardly dried on the LVF statement and already the DUP are making demands for the release of prisoners involved in one of the most shocking double murders to take place during the campaign of genocide by this notorious gang of ruthless killers," he said.

The Alliance Party's Deputy Leader, Eileen Bell, said the focus of the government should be "victims, not terrorists".

Beating

"A week ago a Victims' Commissioner was put in post with DUP approval as a sop to unionists," she said.

"But now, it seems it is more important for DUP officers in their party leader's own constituency to secure the release of murderers. Their focus should be on the rights and needs of victims, including the families of those killed at Poyntzpass."

McClean and McCready had been due for release under the Agreement in July 2000 but were arrested while on leave following the brutal beating of a County Down man in a row over flags.

They were later cleared of all charges but have been kept in prison.

In July 2005 the House of Lords dismissed an appeal for release by McClean who was barred by NI Secretary Peter Mandelson in 2000 from the early release scheme.

Mr Mandelson said McClean must prove he was not a danger.