Former Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) commander turned state witness, Gary Haggarty, has provided further details about his paramilitary crimes in a murder trial. Haggarty is the main prosecution witness against James Stewart Smyth, who is accused of the murder of two Catholic workmen in 1994. Eamon Fox and Gary Convie were shot dead in a car in Belfast’s North Queen Street. Haggarty told Belfast Crown Court that Smyth was responsible for the killings.
On his final day of questioning, Haggarty was asked about his past convictions and his relationship with the Royal Ulster Constabulary’s counter-terrorism unit known as Special Branch. More controversially, the defence spoke of the murder of John Harbinson, a Protestant man beaten to death by a UVF gang. Haggarty later admitted to the murder and spent time in jail for that and four other murders.
Haggarty claimed that he kidnapped Harbinson and was trying to “source a gun to give him flesh wounds” but Harbinson was beaten to death in an
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