Charge considered for 1986 loyalist murder

The Public Prosecution Service is to be asked if a man should be charged over a terrorist murder committed in Northern Ireland over 20 years ago.

The Public Prosecution Service is to be asked if a man should be charged in connection with a terrorist murder committed in the North more than 20 years ago.

Police said today a man arrested on Tuesday for questioning about the murder by the Historical Enquiries Team had been released pending the report to the PPS.

The 44-year-old was detained in the Greater Belfast area by detectives from the HET reinvestigating the murder of Robert Coggles in August 1986.

Mr Coggles, a 31-year-old Protestant from Sunningdale Gardens in north Belfast's Ballysillan area is believed to have been killed by an Ulster Volunteer Force punishment squad.

His partially-decomposed body was found at Carr's Glen on the northern outskirts of the city. He had been shot in the head.

The body was discovered in a shallow grave after several days of police searches some two weeks after he disappeared.

A man out walking his dog raised the alarm after finding a tooth, bloodstains and a trail of blood leading to the grave several days after people in the area reported hearing shots in the early hours of the morning.