Loyalist killer sent back to jail

Notorious loyalist killer Torrens Knight was tonight arrested in the North and his release from prison suspended, Northern Ireland Prison Service said.

He was detained in Coleraine, Co Derry and sent back to jail to serve 12 life sentences for murders in 1993.

Knight was convicted earlier this month of assaulting two women at a bar in Coleraine but is appealing against the finding.

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward suspended the licence.

“Arising from Torrens Knight’s conviction on two charges of assault and one of disorderly behaviour I have, following due consideration, suspended his ’early’ release licence.

“His convictions last Thursday demonstrate that he has breached the terms of his life licence and that he presents a risk to the safety of others.”

Knight was a member of the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) gang that burst into the Rising Sun bar in Greysteel, Co Derry on Halloween in 1993 and opened fire.

The killings are always associated with the chilling “trick or treat” phrase shouted by one of the gunmen before they started shooting.

Knight was also convicted of the murders of four Catholic builders in the nearby town of Castlerock earlier that year.

Given 12 life sentences he was released in 2000 as part of the historic Good Friday Agreement peace deal.

On Thursday he was found guilty of assaulting two sisters in a bar in Coleraine.

A district judge in Coleraine Magistrates’ Court convicted Knight of punching Caroline Nicholl to the ground and then kicking her before turning his fists on her sister Rosemary Sutherland inside the Blackthorn bar in the town last May.

Mr Woodward added: “I will not hesitate to act to suspend the licence of any prisoner who was released under the Sentences Act early release scheme, introduced following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, if, by their actions, they prove they have become a danger to the public.

“My priority is public safety and in the interests of the community at large.

“I cannot permit freedom to any individual intent on abusing the opportunity they have been given to benefit from the early release scheme.”

Knight is appealing the convictions from last Thursday. His case will go before the Life Sentence Review Commissioners who will consider the evidence before deciding whether to keep him in prison.

Nationalist SDLP Assembly member John Dallat said: “I am very relieved. I am sorry it took so long to do it but I believe Coleraine can sleep a little easier and I am particularly pleased for Rosemary and Caroline, who were so savagely beaten."