Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Four jailed for supermarket car park killing
Four men facing life sentences over UDA feud shooting of Colin Horner
FOUR men are facing life sentences after admitting the loyalist feud murder of Colin Horner.
They pleaded guilty as they were about to go on trial at Belfast Crown Court for the supermarket car park shooting.
Watching the killers as they shook hands and gave the thumbs-up sign to friends and relatives was the victim’s grieving mother Lesley.
At one point she made as if to approach the dock, but was ushered away to rejoin her son’s partner Natasha.
Mr Horner, a father of two, was gunned down in front of his three-year old son Oscar in the car park of Sainsbury’s in Bangor, Co Down. At the time the 35-year-old’s murder was linked to a South East Antrim UDA feud which two months earlier had claimed the life of Mr Horner’s friend, Carrick loyalist Geordie Gilmore.
Defence counsel yesterday thanked Mr Justice Colton for the time given after a two-day delay in the case.
They asked for their clients to be rearraigned on the murder charge and also for possessing the gun used in the Balloo Link Retail Park shooting on May 28, 2017.
As the charges were put to the four defendants – Newtownards men Alan James Wilson, 30, of North Green, Joseph Blair, 35, of Shackleton Walk, Robert Ralph, 47, of Donaghadee Road, and Bangor man, 31-year-old Ryan Graham Smyth from Windsor Gardens – they each pleaded guilty.
Mr Justice Colton told them they would be jailed for life, “the only sentence open” to him.
However, he added that next Tuesday, when their various roles in the shooting would be detailed to the court, he would also hold a tariff hearing to determine how long they would each serve before being considered for release.
A murder charge against 48-year-old Adrian Gordon Price, of Bristol Park, Newtownards, was not proceeded with by the prosecution and “allowed to remain on the books”.
He pleaded guilty to an additional count of withholding information about the murder.
Conlig woman Terrie Aicken, 24, from Green Road, admitted a similar charge, after which a count of perverting public justice “by making a false statement to police” was allowed to “remain on the books”.
They were released on bail, while the four killers were remanded in custody.