Published Friday, 03 February 2012
LVF member Neil Hyde was sentenced to spend three years behind bars at Belfast Crown Court on Friday for a catalogue of crimes.
Hyde heard that had he not agreed to identify the men alleged to have carried out Mr O'Hagan's murder and give evidence about LVF activities, his sentence would have been 18 years.
The accused pleaded guilty to 48 charges at Belfast Crown Court, including possessing handguns with intent to endanger life, and withholding information about terrorist attacks.
The 32-year-old also confessed to serous public disorder disturbances including petrol bomb offences committed during the notorious Drumcree stand-offs in the late 90s and early 00s, robbery, aggravated burglary and drug-running offences, all committed between 1992 and 2008.
The guilty plea also covered conspiring with Drew King and others to possess a handgun in September 2001, which is connected to the murder of 51-year-old journalist Mr O'Hagan, who was gunned down in front of his wife and two children 100 metres from his Lurgan home.
Hyde, with an address c/o the Witness Protection Unit, was recruited into the paramilitary group in 1996, and Judge Patrick Lynch QC said "by virtue of your size and propensity for violence, it appears that you were useful to the organisation as an enforcer and embarked on a career of sustained criminality over the next 15 years".
I want the police now to go and get the people, the real LVF killers and drug dealers who murdered my colleague.
Sunday World editor Jim McDowell
Speaking outside the court editor of the Sunday World and close friend of his murdered colleague said the day's result was "a start".
"For 10 long years we have been fighting for justice for Martin and that was a start today. There are people named in the indictment to which he has confessed - they're clearly there, they're clearly implicated.
Describing "ambivalent" feelings towards the case, the veteran reporter said there was "no sense of elation or sense of celebration" at Hyde getting justice but rather he was "confident" the killers would receive the same justice.
"I would like to put on record the work that has been done by the police retrospective murder review squad and the PPS. They have managed to get this today and at times we doubted we would get this far," he added.