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    Doug Beattie to write to PPS over loyalist’s sentence

    saiphnewsBy No Comments2 Mins Read


    PA Media Doug Beattie has short white hair and a beard. He is smiling at the camera. He is wearing a pair of wire framed square glasses, a blue plaid suit jacket and a white collared shirt.PA Media

    Doug Beattie called the two and a half year sentence given to loyalist Winston Irvine as “appalling”

    The former Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader has said he will write to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) over the sentence handed to high-profile loyalist Winston Irvine.

    On Tuesday, the 49-year-old of Ballysillian Road in north Belfast was given a two and a half year sentence, after previously admitting to a range of firearm and ammunition offences.

    Irvine will spend half of his two and a half year sentence in custody and the other half on license.

    Doug Beattie described the sentence as “bizarre” following Irvine’s choice to not give any explanation for the weaponry discovered in June 2022.

    Belfast Crown Court heard Irvine had made no comment during police interviews, providing a prepared statement outlining his reputation as a “trusted interlocutor” during Northern Ireland’s peace process.

    During sentencing, the judge said despite the guilty plea, he did not consider the crimes to be connected to terrorism.

    Beattie said that reasoning was “appalling”.

    PA Media Winston Irvine, a brown-haired man, photographed outside court. He is pictured from the chest up amd wears a olive green zipped up thin jumper under a beige coat. A bag strap is visible on his shoulder.PA Media

    Winston Irvine leaving Belfast Crown Court in March

    “Here we have a man at a time when tensions were heightened in Northern Ireland due to issues around Brexit and the protocol who was found with weapons and ammunition,” he told BBC Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show.

    “How on earth the judge can say there was no terrorist link to this is utterly bizarre if we don’t know what the weapons were for.”

    ‘Sentence’ sends out a bad message

    PSNI A close-up photo of a small selection of ammunition. The bullets are lying on a flat surface which is partially covered by clear plasticPSNI

    Some of the ammunition that was discovered when officers stopped Irvine in June 2022

    Irvine’s co-accused, 54-year-old Robin Workman, of Shore Road in Larne, was sentenced to five years – the minimum custodial sentence.

    Beattie said there were questions over why Irvine did not receive the mandatory term and said he will be writing to the PPS over the decision.

    “I don’t think that there is any exceptional circumstances to carrying guns around our city,” he added.

    “You can’t say you’re a peacemaker on one hand, and then during the day time you help move deadly weapons and ammunition around the place.

    “The two don’t match together.”

    The UUP’s justice spokesperson said that the sentence sends out a bad message, and said the judiciary needs to get “a grip of this”.

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