Three republicans linked to Irish dissident terror groups have been sentenced to a total of 38 years in jail for trying to murder two key members of the Ulster Defence Association.
The Scotland-based trio’s targets included one of the most notorious Ulster loyalist paramilitaries during the Northern Ireland Troubles, Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair.
Antoin Duffy, 39, was sentenced to 17 years at the high court in Glasgow on Monday for his part in the plot to kill Adair and fellow UDA veteran Sam “Skelly” McCrory in Scotland.
Duffy’s cousin Martin Hughes, 36, was jailed for 11 years, while 32-year-old Paul Sands was sentenced to 10 years for plotting to kill the UDA men.
Two other men, Craig Convery and Gordon Brown, were found guilty of organised crime charges. Convery was jailed for nine years and Brown for six years.
When they were found guilty in July, the high court in Glasgow heard that Duffy, originally from Donegal in the Irish Republic, was the main force behind the plan to kill Adair and McCrory.
Duffy had planned the shooting of the UDA pair in Ayrshire from his cell at an open prison where he was being held for threatening to shoot a pub security man in Glasgow.
The murder plot involved on one side, three men who appeared to be amateurish in their terrorist activities and on the other, the full weight of the state’s security services: MI5, special branch and Police Scotland directed huge resources to thwart the plot.
From 2012 onwards, the security forces bugged the trio’s cars and recorded 126 hours of conversation between them. Duffy, Hughes and Sands staked out McCrory’s flat in Ayr 18 times, all the time being monitored by undercover MI5 officers.
Duffy was even recorded, while under full covert surveillance in a Glasgow pub, asking the Glasgow Celtic player Anthony Stokes to persuade his father to pass on a message to Dublin-based Irish republicans who they believed could supply an AK47. Regulars reacted furiously and Duffy was thrown out of the pub.
In one bugged conversation, Duffy was heard boasting to his girlfriend, Stacey McAllister: “I’m trying to get a war started and get as many guns and explosives as I can.”
A recording was played from a conversation in Hughes’s Mercedes Jeep, made during a journey from Glasgow to McCrory’s home on 1 October 2013. On the tape, Sands said: “There are so many places you could hit this guy. It’s unbelievable.
“I mean, I could go and rap his door right now and we could probably put him in the boot if three of us could manage it, know what I mean.”
During the trial the men’s defence team attempted to portray their clients as amateur fantasists rather than hardened republican dissident paramilitaries.
Paul Sands’ barrister, Donald Findlay QC, described him during the trial as a “total idiot”.
On Monday, Police Scotland welcomed the sentences handed down to all five men.
Det Ch Supt John Cuddihy said: “Firstly, I would like to express my thanks to the senior investigating officer and all the officers and member of Police Scotland staff who worked on this complex and wide-ranging investigation. Their determination to bring to justice those who wish to cause significant harm to our communities shows their commitment to keeping people safe.
“Make no mistake; the intent of those who have been sentenced today was to carry out a murderous terrorist attack on the streets of Scotland. There is no doubt Police Scotland officers have saved the lives of two men and prevented significant negative community impact across Scotland and further afield.
“The collaborative working between Police Scotland and the various partners is testament to the collective desire in Scotland to work together to keep our communities safe. The ability of the prosecutors to articulate a complex investigation to a jury, demonstrating the nexus between organised crime and terrorism is something that we should all be grateful for. Today’s verdict shows that justice is not simply a concept, it is a reality.”
Adair and McCrory were key figures in the UDA’s C Company on Belfast’s Shankill Road during the 1980s and 90s. McCrory was also commanding officer of UDA prisoners inside the Maze prison in the runup to the 1998 Good Friday agreement. He met Mo Mowlam, then Northern Ireland secretary, inside the jail and agreed with her that UDA inmates would support a cessation of renewed violence on the outside and would later back the Good Friday peace accord.
The two men have been in Scotland for more than a decade after they were exiled from Northern Ireland by their former UDA comrades. They had fought two bitter feuds with loyalist rivals in the 2000s, first with the Ulster Volunteer Force and then with other factions of the UDA.
Reacting to Monday’s verdict, McCrory said he and Adair were “very, very happy with the sentences handed down”.
He added: “The sentences prove how serious this plot to kill Johnny and myself actually was. The police and the crown never believed these people were just a bunch of fantasists. The plot was for real.”