£2,000 legal aid bill for Knight

GREYSTEEL killer Torrens Knight received over £2,000 in legal aid over the past two years as he unsuccessfully appealed a conviction for assaulting two women in a pub in Coleraine.

Knight was a member of the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) gang that murdered eight people in the Rising Sun pub in Greysteel in the 1993 "trick or treat massacre."

He was jailed for life for the murders but was released under the Good Friday Agreement in 2000.

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He was sent back to prison late last year having breached the terms of his licence through the Coleraine assault of May 2008

Now it emerges the taxpayer footed a 2,000 legal aid bill for the Coleraine man over the past two years.

East Londonderry MLA John Dallat asked the Minister of Justice David Ford to detail the cost of legal aid for the various court appearances by Knight in the last two years.

Mr Ford replied: "The total cost of court appearances for Torrens Knight in the last 2 years amounted to 2,152.30 plus VAT.

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"The sum includes the cost of fees paid to both the instructing solicitor and junior counsel as follows, 1,168.09 plus VAT 199.17 (instructing solicitor costs) and 668.12 plus VAT 116.92 (junior counsel)."