Former UVF leader dies in hospital

The former UVF leader Gusty Spence has died at the age of 78.

Spence was a feared killer in the 1960s, but later renounced violence and announced the 1994 Combined Loyalist Military Command ceasefire.

Mr Spence was born in the Shankill Road in Belfast.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, after his gang shot dead 18-year-old Catholic Peter Ward, and wounded two others as they left a pub at Malvern Street in Belfast, in 1966

He served 18 years in jail, became heavily involved in politics and was a key figure in the Progressive Unionist Party alongside figures like the late David Ervine.

In 2007, he read out the statement by the UVF announcing that it would keep its weapons, but put them beyond the reach of ordinary members.

He died in hospital.