Double killer loses release fight

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

A loyalist gunman convicted of a double killing has lost the final round of a legal battle to be released from prison under the Good Friday Agreement.

The House of Lords dismissed an appeal by Stephen McClean, convicted of the 1998 murders of two men in County Armagh, for "accelerated release".

He was convicted of the murder of two friends in a bar in Poyntzpass.

His release in 2000 was barred by NI Secretary Peter Mandelson who said McClean must prove he was not a danger.

This was reversed by the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal, but then upheld by five Law Lords on Thursday.

The Appeal Court had directed the minister to "prove, on the balance of probabilities, that the appellant, if released immediately, would be a danger to the public".

The friends were killed in the Railway Bar in Poyntzpass

However, Lords Bingham, Scott, Rodger, Carswell and Brown overruled this and dismissed a cross-appeal by McClean in which he claimed the procedure he faced was unfair because he was not allowed to see the details of the "danger to the public" allegations.

McClean has been told that the withheld information related to his alleged continued involvement in the affairs of the Loyalist Volunteer Force, and that to disclose the details would, among other things, be contrary to the interests of national security.

Stephen McClean and Noel McCready both from Banbridge were jailed in February 2000 over the murder of lifelong friends Philip Allen, a Protestant, and Damien Trainor, a Catholic, who were shot dead in the Railway Bar, Poyntzpass, in 1998.

McClean and McCready thought the bar was only frequented by Catholics.