Judge rules Parole Commissioners must disclose reasons for releasing loyalist killer Michael Stone from prison

Mr Justice Colton directed Northern Ireland’s Parole Commissioners to provide the grounds for their determination to Deborah McGuinness within a week.

Ms McGuinness is seeking the material for an urgent legal challenge she is mounting after the 65-year-old Milltown Cemetery bomber was freed earlier this week.

Despite Stone’s lawyers opposing disclosure amid claims it could put his safety at risk, pledges were given that any disclosed information will remain confidential.

On that basis the judge ordered: “The Parole Commissioners will provide the applicant with a summary of the reasons for the decision with appropriate redactions.”

Stone was imprisoned for waging a sectarian murder campaign which had been expected to keep him behind bars until 2024.

But on Tuesday the ex-UDA man was released on parole from Maghaberry Prison.

Lawyers for Ms McGuinness are now attempting to judicially review the lawfulness of that decision.

Her brother Thomas McErlean was among three mourners murdered in the grenade attack on an IRA funeral at Milltown graveyard, west Belfast in March 1988.

Stone was also the gunman in another three killings.

He was previously freed on licence in 2000, but returned to jail six years later after launching an infamous attempt to murder Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness at Stormont.

He entered Parliament Buildings in 2006 armed with explosives, knives and an axe.

Stone denied it had been an attempt to murder the politicians, instead claiming it was an act of performance art.

In 2013 he was told that he must serve the rest of the 30-year tariff on his life sentence.

A series of legal cases since then have centred on the eligibility of the Parole Commissioners to assess his suitability for release.

In November last year the Court of Appeal overturned a decision that he must remain behind bars until 2024.

Judges held that the six years he spent out on licence should count towards the 30-year tariff.

Fresh action is now being taken against alleged failures to provide information about parole hearings and to allow relatives of Stone’s victims to take part in those proceedings.

Ronan Lavery QC, for Ms McGuinness, told the court today she needed the grounds for the Parole Commissioners’ decision in order to advance her case.

“We should be given the reasons for the determination at this stage as a starting point, in order to know in any meaningful way what happened and what the rationale was for that decision,” he said.

Counsel for both the Commissioners and the Department of Justice raised no objections to the court ordering a handover on that basis that any necessary redactions were made and an undertaking of confidentiality given by Ms McGuinness.

However, Hugh Southey QC, for Stone, said he opposed disclosure on human rights grounds.

“We also have concerns about the safety of my client and the people associated with him,” he added.

But Mr Justice Colton responded that it was difficult to identify any safety issues if the necessary safeguards were put in place.

Stressing the urgency of the case, he listed a further review on February 12.