“Trick or treat” murderer back in jail

Posted on 27th October, 2009 by

BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Foyle and West | Greysteel killer back behind bars

I’m not sure why this guy was let out at all. He was part of a gang that walked into a bar at Halloween 1993, shouted “trick or treat”, and then started firing, killing eight people. News reported at the time that a woman, when she saw a man with a machine gun shouting that, said to him “that’s not funny”, whereupon one of the murderers turned around and shot her in the face.

Surely a massacre of this sort has nothing to do with politics, even if they did come from the so-called Ulster Freedom Fighters; it is just plain murder. After receiving twelve life sentences, he was released under the Good Friday Agreement after serving just seven years; you would serve twelve for the least aggravated murder if you were not a member of an Irish republican or loyalist paramilitary group. The fact that this man, like another man convicted of involvement in the same massacre, has continued to behave violently demonstrates that letting these kinds of thugs out of jail, besides being plain unjust in itself, doesn’t deliver peace.

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  • M Risbrook

    What relevance is this to Islam?

  • http://www.abulayth.com Abu Layth

    They should fry! Chop his head off, hang him, do something to take his pathetic life! He forewent his right to life when he decided to take anothers! But after all, this is the result of neo-liberalism and pathetic punishments of slap-me-on-wrist-and-I-promise-never-to-do-it-again!

  • http://www.blogistan.co.uk/blog/ Indigo Jo

    MR: it doesn’t have to have any. It’s my blog, and I can post what I like.

  • M Risbrook

    The EU prohibits any of its member states from implementing capital punishment for murder.

  • George Carty

    So does the Council of Europe…

  • Thersites

    “The fact that this man, like another man convicted of involvement in the same massacre, has continued to behave violently demonstrates that letting these kinds of thugs out of jail, besides being plain unjust in itself, doesn’t deliver peace.”

    Well, yes, it does actually, as you can tell by comparing the number of murders in Northern Ireland now with the number before the agreement. Thsoe- like these two- who revert to their old ways are locked up again; those who would not have become killers except for the situation in N.I. remain free. You may object to the price paid for peace or the kind of peace produced, and there are very goo arguments for such objections, but peace it is, even if only temporary or comparative.

  • M Risbrook

    I’m sure that most white Muslims in Britain consider Omagh to be just as British as Oxford.

  • http://www.blogistan.co.uk/blog/ Indigo Jo

    Actually, some white Muslims in Britain are of part Irish heritage, like me, and definitely don’t consider Omagh to be “as British as Oxford”. Actually, I’ve always been as hostile towards the IRA and its splinter groups as towards the Protestant gangsters (you can use my search faciliity, top of right-hand column, if you want to see for yourself). There are some prisoners I agree should be released, but people who go into bars and let off automatic weapons at people because they are Catholic or Protestant are no different from people who commit racist murders in England.

  • Thersites

    “There are some prisoners I agree should be released, but people who go into bars and let off automatic weapons at people because they are Catholic or Protestant are no different from people who commit racist murders in England.” Except that the people who agreed to a ceasefire said there was a difference. How do you decide who should be released unless you decide all should be released?

    ‘I get down on my knees and do what must be done And kiss Achilles’ hand, the killer of my son.’

  • M Risbrook

    One of the commonest reasons why Muslims support the Union is because the small numbers of Muslims who live in the Celtic outposts of Britain will be isolated and cut off from the larger Muslim community in England if their countries were independent, or in the case of Ulster, reunited with Ireland.

  • George Carty

    Maybe you should tell that to Osama Saeed, who’s very much in favour of Scottish independence…

  • M Risbrook

    There are always exceptions here and there.

  • LeedsLad

    lol, who is Osama Saeed?

  • M Risbrook

    A member of the SNP.

  • George Carty

    And also head of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation. Here’s his website.