Stone reveals plans to Belfast newspaper

Loyalist killer Michael Stone has today revealed his intentions for last Friday's Stormont attack in a letter to a Belfast newspaper.

Stone, 51, admitted in a letter to the Belfast Telegraph that he had intended to kill both Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams and the party's Chief Negotiator Martin McGuinness when he stormed Parliament Buildings during the meeting of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

In the letter, he also added that if he had not been able to get to the Sinn Féin members, he would have attacked the party's headquarters on the first floor of the building. The loyalist murderer also admitted that he was acting alone as a “freelance dissident loyalist.”

The letter, which was dated November 24, 2006, said that Stone was aware that following his attack he would either end up in prison for the rest of his life or dead, however he was not intending to withdraw from his mission.

Stone was taken down by Stormont Security staff before managing to get inside the main Stormont building.

The Northern Ireland Secretary of State has revoked Stone's early release licence with immediate effect, and Stone has since been returned to prison.

Stone was released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement in 2000, after spending only 12-years out of a 700-year sentence which he received for six murders – three of which happened at an IRA funeral at Milltown Cemetery in west Belfast in 1988.

(EF)