Loyalist Poyntzpass killer set to be freed

[Balboa]

Poyntzpass killer set to be freed 

Friends Damien Trainor (l) and Philip Allen (r) were shot dead in the bar
A loyalist double murderer is to be freed from prison after a review board recommended his release.
Stephen McLean and Noel McCready are serving life sentences for killing friends Damien Trainor and Philip Allen in a Poyntzpass bar in 1998.

The Sentence Review Commission recommended McClean be freed, but McCready's application be denied.

The commission's preliminary indication can be challenged by the Prison Service acting for the secretary of state.

The decision was taken by a review panel on 7 September.


McClean and McCready were members of the paramilitary Loyalist Volunteer Force.


The pair had been due for release in July 2000 under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, but were arrested while on temporary release following the brutal beating of a County Down man in a row over flags.

They were later cleared of all charges, but were kept in prison.

In July 2005 the House of Lords dismissed an appeal for release by McClean who was barred by NI Secretary Peter Mandelson in 2000 from the early release scheme.

Under the Sentence Review Commission's guidelines, prisoners who are supporters of the LVF, Continuity IRA, INLA and Real IRA are not eligible to have their sentences reduced.

Mr Trainor's father Sean told the Belfast-based Irish News that his son's killers should not be released.

"Those two innocent boys they murdered aren't coming back," he said.

"They should serve life for what they did. That's the way it should be.

"The heartache they have caused you couldn't describe."