Dallat slams killer's release from prison

EAST Derry MLA John Dallat has slammed a decision by the Sentence Review Commission to release Greysteel 'Trick or Treat' killer Torrens Knight from prison.

Knight was given 12 life sentences for the 1993 Greysteel massacre and the separate murders of four workmen in Castlerock .Both were carried out by the UFF. The killer was sent back to prison last year for attacking two sisters in a Coleraine bar and had his early release licence suspended. Mr Dallat says his release has sent "shockwaves across the community"

He said: "One of the most difficult things I have had to do was to ring the two sisters he beat up in Coleraine on 31 May 2008 because I was certain they had not been told and, of course, they hadn't.

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"When the Greysteel killer was arrested and taken to jail I received a phone call from the Northern Ireland Office. On his release I was ignored. Not even the police officer who dealt with the case knew he was on his way home to resume residence within one mile of one of the sisters he beat up."

Knight was one of two gunmen from the UFF who opened fire on the Rising Sun bar in Greysteel, in October 1993. They shot dead seven people. Another man later died of his injuries. Customers in the bar at first thought it was a Halloween prank as the gunmen shouted "trick or treat" before opening fire. Mr Dallat says Knight had been treated with "kid gloves" and claimed his early released had 'damaged democracy'.

He said: "The damage done to democracy by this decision is horrendous and it will take a great deal of convincing that Torrens Knight should be back in the community. The Northern Ireland Office and the Review Commissioners have done a great disservice to democracy which brings only shame and they need to explain themselves.

"When the wider community gave their consent to the Early Release Scheme they did it on the understanding that anyone who broke the terms would be back in jail to serve the remainder of their life sentences. Most have stuck to those terms but Knight hasn't and people wonder why he has got away with it."

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