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Supergrass Trial: Robert Stewart nega di aver ucciso Tommy English

Supergrass denies being UVF gunman

Supergrass Robert Stewart – a star witness in one of Northern Ireland’s biggest trials for decades – has denied being the UVF shooter responsible for the murder of Tommy English.

Robert Stewart in aulaThe 37-year-old, who has already confessed to UVF membership and playing a role in the loyalist killing, has turned Queen’s evidence against 14 of his alleged terrorist associates.

Former UVF leader and police agent Mark Haddock – plus 13 others – are standing trial at Belfast Crown Court on a litany of charges, many of them connected to the murder in 2000.

On Thursday, Stewart admitted telling police “a bare-faced lie … a blooming great whopper of a lie” – deliberately not naming two of the accused in interviews in 2008 over the death.

He and his brother David were being questioned after turning themselves in to authorities.

During Thursday’s cross-examination by defence QC Frank O’Donaghue, over discrepancies in what he originally told police three years ago, Stewart rejected suggestions that the murder was committed by another UVF unit.

Those on trial are accused of membership of UVF units in Mount Vernon and New Mossley, while it was put to Stewart that the Shankill UFV carried out the shooting of Tommy English.

Stewart denied both the allegation and that he told detectives another “whopping great lie” in claiming Haddock had asked him, his brother and several others if they wanted to carry out the killing.

Since the trial began on Tuesday, Stewart has admitted to lying in his first police statement and to memory problems caused by drug and alcohol abuse. However, he has insisted that the evidence he was now giving was the truth.

It is expected that Stewart will spend much of the coming days in the witness box, being cross-examined by defence lawyers for each of the accused.

The trial at Laganside Courthouse, which is expected to last up to 14 weeks, continues amid a ground-breaking ruling which, for the first time in Northern Ireland, allows journalists to tweet from court.

It has been adjourned until Monday so the security operation does not clash with a similar security operation at the Waterfront Hall for the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis.

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René Querin

Di professione grafico e web designer, sono appassionato di trekking e innamorato dell'Irlanda e della sua storia. Insieme ad Andrea Varacalli ho creato e gestisco Les Enfants Terribles.

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