Torrens Knight weeps in court
Greysteel killer Torrens Knight broke down in tears in court, minutes before admitting that he had been “a bad man” who had done terrible things in his past.
The notorious hit man, jailed for life for 12 murders in 1993, was giving evidence at his appeal against his conviction and four month jail sentence for assaulting two sisters in a Coleraine bar two years ago.
Knight, 40, from Ashdale, Coleraine cried as he spoke of his hurt after the sisters called his wife “a tramp”, at Antrim County Court on Monday.
Knight, freed under the early release programme, but returned to prison by Secretary of State Shaun Woodward following his conviction for attacking the sisters, admitted that after the attack he told police that he wasn’t ashamed of what he had done in the past.
Knight said he had been through a lot but it was “self-inflicted”. He said the papers had written a lot of things about him, but he had developed a thick skin.
However, he said that the sisters’ should not have insulted his wife. Fighting back tears he said “she is a good girl”.
Knight said he had approached the sisters in the bar to make peace with them because there had been bad blood between them and his wife’s family.
He said the sisters blamed him for shooting their brother, but he said, “I can prove I wasn’t even in the country at the time”.
He denied that he struck the first blow, and said he had only been acting in self-defence.
