UVF terrorist trio to appeal on grounds of entrapment

Supergrass: Gary Haggarty THREE men jailed for loyalist terrorist offences stretching back over two decades are to claim they were entrapped by police agents in a joint bid to clear their names.

Lawyers for John Patterson Hill, John Hamilton Grace and Owen Workman will appeal their convictions based on alleged collusion and manipulation of their separate trial processes.

The allegedly undisclosed role of former UVF commander turned supergrass Gary Haggarty is central to the legal challenges. Another prominent loyalist, now deceased and suspected of being an informer, will also feature.

The three men’s cases are set to be listed for hearing at the Court of Appeal early in 2018.

Hill, a 46-year-old from the north of the city, was jailed for three years over a bar attack during a vicious loyalist feud in 1997.

He was found guilty of arson and other offences connected to an attack on the Golden Hind pub in Portadown. The incident, linked to a bitter dispute between the UVF and rival LVF, led to 12 men being prosecuted.

Hill’s legal representatives believe north Belfast man Haggarty (45) worked as a state informant when the Golden Hind was targeted.

Haggarty, now an assisting offender, is awaiting sentencing after admitting a catalogue of paramilitary crimes, including five counts of murder.

He was also allegedly involved in the case of Workman, who served a prison sentence for the false imprisonment of a man abducted in the Mount Vernon area of the city in the 1990s.

The third appeal, by west Belfast man Grace, relates to his conviction for firearms offences from the same period.

His challenge is understood to focus on the involvement of another as yet undisclosed loyalist figure who has since died.

Solicitor John Greer of Reavey and Company, representing all three men, said: “There is evidence that state agents were responsible for instigating and directing these crimes. It is also our belief that the authorities manipulated these trial processes by not complying with their disclosure obligations.”