Loyalist to face retrial over murder charge

The Court of Appeal has today ruled that a man cleared of a murder during the loyalist feud, will have to stand trial again.

William `Mo` Courtney, 43, had been released from prison in November last year after a court ruling that he had no case to answer on a charges relating to the 2003 murder of 21-year-old Alan McCullough.

Today's decision was the first time in Northern Ireland when the Crown appealed against a judge's decision.

It is understood that the new trial will be heard by a different judge.

The Lord Chief Justice, Sir Brian Kerr, who heard the Crown's application with Lord Justice Campbell and Mr Justice Coghlin, said: "We are satisfied that the interests of justice require that the defendant stand trial on the first count of the indictment."

The Crown had not sought a retrial on a second charge of UDA/UFF membership.

Sir Brian said the court was satisfied that if Mr Justice McLaughlin had taken all the evidence into account on an all-encompassing basis he would have found that there was sufficient evidence to raise a prima facie case against McCullough, notwithstanding the frailties of the evidence.

Alan McCullough went missing in 2003, after returning to Northern Ireland after having fled to England to avoid the loyalist feud.

Mr McCullough's family were told that he would not be harmed if he returned home, however, when he did, he was taken from his mothers house on May 28 2003 and shot in the head.

His remains were found in a shallow grave in Mallusk over a week later.

(EF)