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22/03/2007
Loyalist pleads guilty to manslaughter of UDA member
Leading loyalist William ‘Mo’ Courtney has today admitted to the manslaughter of UDA feud victim Alan McCullough.
Mr McCullough’s body was found in a shallow grave on the outskirts of Belfast in 2003. The 21-year-old from the Shankill area of Belfast had been shot.
Defence QC Arthur Harvey today asked Belfast Crown Court for Courtney to be re-arraigned on the murder charge.
The prosecution said they would accept his plea and added they would not proceed on the charge of murder.
Prosecution QC Geoffrey Millar said the defendant had “indicated that he would make the case that he did not know that a person at the scene intended to kill Mr McCullough but that he did contemplate that a punishment shooting in the form of a kneecapping would take place.
“The Crown accepts that the evidential problems arising from the circumstances justifies the acceptance of a plea to manslaughter.”
Courtney has been remanded in custody and will be sentenced on Friday.
(JM/KMcA)
Mr McCullough’s body was found in a shallow grave on the outskirts of Belfast in 2003. The 21-year-old from the Shankill area of Belfast had been shot.
Defence QC Arthur Harvey today asked Belfast Crown Court for Courtney to be re-arraigned on the murder charge.
The prosecution said they would accept his plea and added they would not proceed on the charge of murder.
Prosecution QC Geoffrey Millar said the defendant had “indicated that he would make the case that he did not know that a person at the scene intended to kill Mr McCullough but that he did contemplate that a punishment shooting in the form of a kneecapping would take place.
“The Crown accepts that the evidential problems arising from the circumstances justifies the acceptance of a plea to manslaughter.”
Courtney has been remanded in custody and will be sentenced on Friday.
(JM/KMcA)
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