Stone awaits sentence for Stormont raid

A notorious loyalist killer who tried to kill senior Sinn Féin members in a one-man attack on the Northern Ireland Assembly will today find if he is to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Michael Stone, 53, is to be sentenced at Belfast Crown Court after being found guilty of attempting to murder Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness in a bizarre armed raid at Stormont.

The former Ulster Defence Association (UDA) member, who gained notoriety in 1988 when he killed three mourners at an IRA funeral in west Belfast, claimed his actions at Parliament Buildings in November 2006 were all part of an elaborate performance art display.

However, last month the judge at his trial dismissed this theory as being wholly undeserving of belief.

Mr Justice Deeney said the idea that Stone was taking part in some sort of a “comic parody” was “hopelessly unconvincing” and “self-contradictory”.

Television cameras in situ to cover political developments in the stalling Northern Ireland peace process captured the moment Stone burst through the revolving doors and was hauled to the ground by two security guards – both of whom were later honoured for their bravery.

As well as the two attempted murder charges, Stone was convicted on seven other counts, including possession of nail bombs, three knives, a garrote and an axe, as well as causing criminal damage to the Stormont building.

In 1989 Stone was sentenced to nearly 700 years for murdering six Catholics, including the three men he killed in his lone gun and grenade attack on Milltown cemetery the previous year.

He was released from prison on licence in 2000 under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement and went on to try to reinvent himself as a surrealist painter.