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Northern Ireland’s highest court has ruled that loyal killer Michael Stone can apply for early release from prison.
He said that keeping the notorious paramilitaries behind bars until at least 2024 “would constitute an interference in the physical freedom of the prisoner and could only arise under a clear authority of the law”, and in his opinion, this could not be implied.
In 1988, Stone killed three people in a gun and grenade attack at the Milltown Cemetery in Belfast.
Stone was released early from prison in 2000 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
He was sent back six years later after trying to attack Sinn Féin politicians in Stormont.
Stone is serving a 30-year jail term. The issue under consideration was whether he would remain in jail until at least 2024, or whether his minimum rate expired in 2018, including the six years that he was released on leave.
Stone launched an appeal against efforts to keep him in prison.
One of his victims was 20-year-old Thomas McErlean. His sister, Deborah McGuinness, had taken legal action in an attempt to try to get her brother’s killer to apply for early release.
A statement on behalf of the Court of Appeal said: “The Court found that the Superior Court’s decision did indeed rewrite the statute.
“He acknowledged that the arrangements regarding prisoner-related issues have been a source of considerable concern to many within this community, but said those arrangements are unique and extraordinary.
“They were the result of a political process supported by a referendum. They undoubtedly produced a windfall for the affected prisoners.
“The merits of the provision for that windfall are not for this court to determine.”
The court found that interpreting the words of the statute in context led to the conclusion that the period that the prisoner legally spent on leave should be included in the relevant part of his sentence.
Allowed appeals.
The court said there was no reason to assume that Parliament did not take into account that there were periods of legal release when it enacted the Northern Ireland Act 1998, which established sentencing policy.
It found that if they were not excluded they would help the prisoner serve the relevant part of his sentence.
The court said it was “clearly open” to Parliament to have foreseen the exclusion of the license period as the relevant period for the fulfillment of the fee.
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