Killer who stormed Stormont is charged with attempted murder

13 April 2012

Convicted Loyalist killer Michael Stone was today charged with attempting to murder Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness at Stormont yesterday.

Stone ,51, faced a total of five charges of attempted murder when he appeared at Belfast Magistrates Court.

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He was also charged with possessing explosives with intent to endanger life, possession of an imitation firearm and possession of articles for terrorist purposes including nailbombs, an axe and a garrotte.

He was remanded in custody until December 22.

During a brief hearing before magistrate Bernadette Kelly, a detective sergeant, questioned by the defence solicitor, agreed that Stone had spoken freely during two police interviews.

The solicitor asked: "Has Mr Stone indicated he acted alone with no other person or organisation involved." The police officer said: "He has."

The sergeant confirmed under further questioning that Stone had not gained entry to the Stormont chamber, where assembly members were involved in a debate, and had been detained at the front door of the building.

Stone was seized by two security staff as he went through the revolving doors to the parliament building.

He was disarmed and wrestled to the ground in front of the full glare of TV cameras. The incident forced the adjournment of a special session of the assembly at which DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness were to indicate that they were prepared to take the positions of First Minister and Deputy First Minister in a devolved assembly next year, Mr Paisley insisting that Sinn Fein would first have to give their support to the police service of Northern Ireland and the law and order system.

The debate is due to be resumed for its final stages on Monday morning.

Michael Stone came to prominence in 1988 when he launched an audacious gun and grenade attack on the funeral of the three IRA members shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar. He killed three people and injured a number more.

He was jailed for a total of 700 years with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 30 years.

However he was released on licence in June 2000 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, which emptied Northern Ireland's prisons of some 800 convicted terrorists.

For a time Stone became a Loyalist folk hero - the attack on the IRA funeral at Milltown Cemetery on the Falls Road was also carried out in the full glare of the cameras.

More recently he has been shunned by Loyalist paramilitary groups.

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