Loyalist killer in Lords appeal

Fulton was a leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force

A loyalist jailed for the murder of Portadown grandmother Elizabeth O'Neill is to take his legal battle against the conviction to the House of Lords.

Guilty verdicts for a series of crimes for which Jim Fulton, 40, is serving a minimum 25-year prison sentence were upheld by the Court of Appeal in June.

On Monday it agreed to certify a legal question on which he will now try to base a fresh challenge.

Mrs O'Neill died in a pipe bomb attack at her Portadown home in 1999.

Fulton, from Portadown, was jailed in January 2007 after being convicted of 48 terrorist offences, including seven attempted murders and directing terrorism.

He was also found guilty of involvement in the murder of Mrs O'Neill.

Fulton was arrested after an undercover police operation and covert surveillance was used to secure recorded confessions from him when he moved to Cornwall in 2000 to began working for what he thought was a crime gang.

His lawyers argued that the taped admissions should not have been allowed in evidence against him.

Despite quashing four of the convictions, the Court of Appeal held that police tricking a defendant into incriminating himself did not render that material inadmissible.

They rejected defence claims that Fulton was subservient to others in the crime gang who paid his wages and supplied drink and drugs.

Fulton's legal team returned before the same three-judge panel on Monday to seek leave to go before the Law Lords.

Their request was centred on a legal point alleging that the 21-month covert operation involving a fictitious criminal enterprise designed to allow Fulton to incriminate himself, was the equivalent of an interrogation which breached his right to a fair trial and flouted the Police and Criminal Evidence legislation.

Following submissions, Lord Justice Girvan said the judges had agreed to certify the question posed by the defence.

Fulton's lawyers will now seek leave from the House of Lords to contest the Court of Appeal ruling.

His barrister, Michael Turner QC, also agreed to a Crown request for police tapes to be returned once "all potential remedies are exhausted".