Former UVF leader, Gary Haggarty, has given evidence to Belfast Crown Court regarding the murder of two Catholic men in 1994, stating it was “pure sectarianism”. Eamon Fox, a father of six, and Gary Convie, a father of one, were eating lunch in their car when they were killed at a Belfast building site. A third man, known only as Witness A, survived the attack. The defendant, James Stewart Smyth, is accused of their murder.
Haggarty informed the court that the two men were not seen as credible targets and were only two Catholic men. He went on to say that the man on trial was unhappy he did not get the person in the back of the van during the attack. At the time of the double murder, Haggarty was second in command to the military commander Mark Haddock of the UVF in Tigers Bay. The court also heard that Haggarty was responsible for testing the weapon involved in the murders and had informed his handlers that it would “possibly be used in a shooting”.
The UVF chose their targets because “the UVF’s view was that there were republicans working on the building site in North Queen Street,” Haggarty told the court. He added that in situations like the one at North Queen Street, people don’t ask questions because it is clear something serious is going to happen. Haggarty also told the court that he had wished James Smyth “luck” before he went to “do what he had to do”.
Haggarty has been in witness protection in England since being released from prison in 2018 after serving a reduced sentence for terrorism offences, including the two workmen that James Stewart Smyth is being tried for. The former UVF leader worked as a paid Special Branch informant for 13 years. In January 2010, he came forward to become an assisting offender and offered to give evidence against other UVF members he said were involved in the crimes. As he agreed to give evidence against his former associates, he was given just six and a half years, spending just over four years in jail
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