Loyalist brawl disrupts murder trial

FIGHTING loyalists forced a judge to abandon plans to deliver a verdict at a tense murder trial in Belfast yesterday.

Mr Justice Higgins refused to announce his judgment after police struggled to keep rival loyalist factions apart outside his courtroom.

A number of people were injured and at one stage a threat was made to throw one man over a fourth-floor balcony. After the violence, the judge said he was deferring the case of a brother and sister accused of involvement in the murder of millionaire loyalist drugs baron Jim Johnston.