'Smirking' UVF chief 'ordered hit'

Loyalist leader Mark Haddock smirked as he dispatched a hit team to gun down a paramilitary rival, a self-confessed member of the murder plot told a court in Belfast today.

Robert Stewart, who has turned Crown evidence against the alleged Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) commander and 13 other men facing paramilitary-linked charges, said Haddock directed the plan to kill Ulster Defence Association (UDA) boss Tommy English 11 years ago.

“Haddock – he was running the whole thing,” Stewart told Belfast Crown Court.

English, 40, was gunned down in his house in front of his wife and three young children just after 6pm on Halloween night in 2000 during a bloody feud between the UDA and UVF.

Stewart, 37, from north Belfast, claimed Haddock and other senior UVF members in the north of the city planned the killing in retaliation for the shooting of a colleague.

At the outset of the trial, the prosecution witness recounted how he, Haddock and a number of the co-accused gathered in a flat a mile-and-a-half from where English lived on the morning of the murder to discuss the plot.

Stewart, facing the 14 defendants as he gave evidence to a packed courtroom, said Haddock delivered a chilling parting message to the murder gang as he left two hours before the shooting in north Belfast.

“Mark Haddock said try to miss the kids,” said Stewart.

When asked by Crown lawyer Gordon Kerr QC what way Haddock had said it, Stewart replied: “He had a smirk on his face.”

The 14 face a litany of paramilitary charges, with most facing counts linked to the murder of English, in one of the largest trials in the North in decades. They all deny the charges.

Stewart and his brother David Ian Stewart have both turned state’s evidence.

The two window cleaners pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the murder and membership of the UVF and received a reduced sentence in return for their co-operation with the authorities in the case against the 14 accused.

Stewart, dressed in a green suit and white shirt, gave evidence for almost two hours flanked by two heavily armed policemen.

On a number of occasions he pointed out the men he alleges were part of the murder bid.

Haddock, 42, sat apart from his 13 other co-accused over fears for his safety.

Eight prison officers surrounded him on seats outside the dock containing his fellow defendants.

Dressed in a blue shirt and sporting a goatee beard, he gave the thumbs-up sign as he sat smiling ahead of the start of proceedings.

Police staged a major security operation both outside and inside the court amid fears of disturbances.

There is simmering anger within loyalism that Haddock and the other defendants will be tried on evidence based largely on the testimony of the Stewart brothers.

Supporters of the 14 accused have likened the case to the so-called supergrass trials in the 1980s, which saw both loyalist and republican paramilitaries jailed on the evidence of former colleagues who turned state’s evidence.

A token protest of around 10 people held banners outside the venue, though supporters with their faces covered – including one wearing a Halloween mask - entered the court building.

During an afternoon on the witness stand, Stewart claimed the gang ate crisps and chocolate bars, bought by Haddock, and watched TV quiz show The Weakest Link as the minutes passed ahead of the shooting.

He said of his alleged accomplices: “I think they were busting to do it right from the start.”

Stewart then characterised one of the gunmen’s alleged attitude to the attack: “He couldn’t wait until it was over so he could have a kebab, because he was starving.”

But the witness said he was “just thankful” he had not been asked to be directly involved in the killing, claiming he had instead taken on the job of hijacking a taxi to be used.

He said he had also been responsible for holding the driver at gunpoint, using a metal replica weapon, until the sound of sirens led him to believe the murder had taken place.

Stewart said he had dumped a bin bag carrying the sweet wrappers from the gang’s safe house behind a hedge while rushing to carry out the hijacking.

He said the others were later angry that the bag had not been burned to destroy any possible fingerprint evidence that the men had been together.

The witness was also quizzed about his involvement in two paramilitary style beatings meted out to two other individuals four years prior to the murder. A number of the accused face charges in relation to those incidents.

He described one of the attacks as “frenzied”, involving bats and hammers, and claimed his then UVF associates had discussed cutting the testicles off the other victim.

Earlier Mr Kerr outlined evidence Stewart’s brother will give later in the trial.

The lawyer said David Ian Stewart claims Haddock made clear that he wanted English dead.

In the hours before the murder, he said Haddock allegedly declared: “I want him done, shot dead.”

During the first morning of the non-jury trial, Mr Kerr also relayed English’s wife Doreen’s account of the shooting.

She said a gang of masked men had forced their way in the back door of their home, assaulted her and then pushed through into the house to shoot her husband.

“At one point she heard one of the men shouting ’come on back and finish the b******’,” said the lawyer.

All 14 accused spoke to confirm their names as the trial began in front of Justice John Gillen with the public gallery packed full.

Special measures have already been introduced ahead of the trial, with witnesses and members of English’s family being kept in a secure room in a different building, linked to Court 12 in Laganside courthouse by video.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland is also making plans in the event of trouble in potential flashpoints such as east and north Belfast and south-east Antrim.

It is understood the trial could last up to three months.