Greysteel killer returns to jail
Notorious loyalist killer Torrens Knight has been re-arrested in Coleraine and sent back to jail, UTV revealed.
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Knight, who was behind 12 killings at Greysteel and Castlerock in 1993, was found guilty last week of assaulting two sisters in a Coleraine bar.
Following his conviction, Secretary of State Shaun Woodward suspended his early release licence on Tuesday evening.
The loyalist killer was released in 2000 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
"I will not hesitate to act to suspend the licence of any prisoner who was released under the Sentences Act early release scheme, introduced following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, if, by their actions, they prove they have become a danger to the public", Mr Woodward said.
"My priority is public safety and in the interests of the community at large. I cannot permit freedom to any individual intent on abusing the opportunity they have been given to benefit from the early release scheme," he added.
Knight, 40, was arrested just before 7pm and returned to Maghaberry prison.
He was convicted of 12 terrorist murders during the Troubles, including those of eight people in the infamous Greysteel massacre.
He was a member of the Ulster Freedom Fighters gang that burst into the Rising Sun bar in the Co Londonderry village on Halloween in 1993 and opened fire.
The killings are always associated with the chilling "trick or treat" phrase shouted by one of the gunmen before they started shooting.
Knight was also convicted of the murders of four Catholic builders in the nearby town of Castlerock earlier that year.
On Thursday, a district judge in Coleraine Magistrates' Court convicted Knight of punching Caroline Nicholl to the ground and then kicking her before turning his fists on her sister Rosemary Sutherland inside the Blackthorn bar last May.
Following his conviction on two counts of assault and one of disorderly behaviour, East Londonderry SDLP MLA John Dallat had called for his early release licence to be rescinded as soon as possible.
"I am very relieved," Mr Dallat said on Tuesday night.
"I am sorry it took so long to do it but I believe Coleraine can sleep a little easier and I am particularly pleased for Rosemary and Caroline, who were so savagely beaten."
Knight is appealing his latest convictions.
His case will go before the Life Sentence Review Commissioners who will consider the evidence before deciding whether to keep him in prison.
© UTV News