Man not guilty of murders of two Catholic workmen in 1994

A man has been found not guilty of the murders of Catholic workmen Eamon Fox and Gary Convie in north Belfast in 1994.

James Stewart Smyth, 58 of Forthriver Link in Belfast, was also cleared of one count of attempted murder, possession of a firearm and membership of a proscribed organisation, the UVF.

Mr Convie and Mr Fox were sitting in a parked car at a building site when they were shot dead by a gunman standing in an adjacent playground beside North Queen Street in May 1994.

Delivering his judgment in the non-jury trial at Belfast Crown Court, Mr Justice O’Hara said it could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Smyth was the gunman.

The trial last year had heard evidence from former UVF man turned loyalist supergrass Gary Haggarty.

Haggarty was handed a reduced prison sentence after admitting more than 500 terror crimes, including five murders, but he was released from prison in 2018 only four months into the six-and-a-half year term, for providing information about other terrorist suspects.

However, Mr Justice O’Hara said Haggarty was an unreliable witness.