The murder of a loyalist in a busy supermarket car park as his three-year-old son looked on was a barbaric and reckless act, a senior detective has said.

In an attempt to distance himself from his initial robust defence of the remarks of the Belfast Protestant evangelical minister Pastor James McConnell who described Muslims as heathen, satanic and spawned evil, Northern Ireland’s First Minister Peter Robinson said he believed the pastor "has the right to freedom of speech" but that he "would never seek to cause any insult to any section of our community".