Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
UVF killer’s ‘unduly lenient’ sentence challenged
PROSECUTORS want to appeal the sentence of loyalist killer turned supergrass Gary Haggarty.
The former UVF leader in North Belfast was handed a minimum six-and-a-half-year sentence after admitting more than 200 offences, including five murders.
However, he has already served 1,186 days in prison on remand and is entitled to credit for that. A statement from the PPS said: “The Director of Public Prosecutions has today sought leave to refer the sentence imposed on Gary Haggarty to the Court of Appeal on the grounds that it is unduly lenient.”
Haggarty’s evidence has led to one person being charged with murder.
His murder victims included John Harbinson, who was beaten to death with a hammer by a UVF gang in North Belfast in 1997.
Catholic Sean Mcparland, who was shot dead in front of children in 1994. Haggarty volunteered to be the lead gunman to dispel UVF suspicions about informers.
Catholic workmen Eamon Fox, 44, a father of six, and Gary Convie, 24, a father of one, were shot dead as they had lunch in a car in Belfast in 1994. Sean Mcdermott, a 37-year-old Catholic shot dead in his car near Antrim in August 1994.
Haggarty admitted involvement in the killings as part of the deal to give evidence against criminals charged.
Most people named in his police interviews will not face prosecution amid state concerns about a lack of supporting evidence.
Families of his victims said he was allowed to kill at will.