Torrens Knight

Torrens Knight is a former loyalist paramilitary, who belonged to the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF).

Knight was part of a four man UFF unit sent to avenge the Shankill Road bombing. Their target was the Rising Sun bar in Greysteel, where he, Stephen Irwin, Jeffrey Deeney and Brian McNeill shot eight people to death (including two Protestants). After one of the gang shouted "Trick or treat", gunmen raked the bar, leaving its floor and walls splashed with blood, while Knight, armed with a shotgun, stood at the door. The eight people killed included an 81-year-old man while 19 others were injured.

Knight was given eight life sentences for his part in the killings and a further four more for the murder of a Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) member and three Catholic civilians in Castlerock, County Londonderry. He served seven years in prison before paramilitary prisoners were granted a general release under the Good Friday Agreement in 2000.

According to David McKittrick, writing in "The Independent" there had been rumours that Knight had been a police informer. Suspicions have been voiced by John Dallat, a campaigning politician who is a member of the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Dallat, who says he was in touch with police about Knight before the Greysteel and Castlerock attacks, claims they might have been prevented since it was known Knight was an extremist.

McKittrick also reported on "a piece of evidence that is seen as strengthening the informer theory. In 2000, after his release from prison, Knight is said to have attracted the attention of staff at a bank where he was withdrawing large amounts of money from an account into which £50,000 a year was being paid. The bank's concern was that Knight was "laundering" illegal money, but, when police were contacted, an assurance was given that everything was in order. The money being paid in was said to be from a Scottish engineering firm. However, the account was hastily closed down."

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/856508.stm]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1710724,00.html]
* [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/was-this-loyalist-murderer-in-the-polices-pay-466965.html]