Murder witness moved over threats
A witness in the investigation into the murder of UDA leader Tommy English has relocated twice due to alleged intimidation, the High Court has heard.
Prosecutors claimed the woman has also been abused in the street and pressured to reveal what she has told detectives.
The details emerged during a fresh bail application by one of 11 men charged over the shooting.
The judge said he would make a decision on David ‘Reggie’ Miller’s application on Thursday morning.
The 37-year-old, of Mount Vernon, north Belfast, is accused of murder and membership of the UVF.
Mr English, 40, was shot dead at his home in the Ballyduff Estate, Newtownabbey, in October 2000.
Charges have been brought following a fresh investigation by the Historical Enquiries Team – a specialist police unit set up to look at unsolved murders from the Troubles.
Evidence
The case is based around so-called supergrass evidence supplied by Newtownabbey brothers David Stewart, 38, and Robert Stewart, 34, who have pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting in the shooting.
A prosecution lawyer told the High Court that the HET was due to submit a full file to the Public Prosecution Service on 2 October.
Opposing his bail application, she claimed that he was in the higher echelons of the group who planned Mr English’s murder.
The barrister said the investigation into a UVF unit in the Mount Vernon estate had widened into a “phase two” examination of alleged punishment beatings and extortion.
Mr Miller’s barrister attacked the credibility of evidence given by the Stewart brothers, and claimed his client could not have been at the meeting where the murder was planned as he was sighted miles away.
He also argued that completion of the HET investigation had already slipped by up to six weeks.
Mr Justice McLaughlin said he would rule on the bail application in the morning.
