28-05-2025
Decision to place UVF chief Winkie Irvine in Maghaberry's segregated loyalist wing is slammed
Irvine was sentenced last week for firearms offences.
According to reports, the 49-year-old asked to be placed on the paramilitary wing despite not being convicted of any terrorism-related offences.
Irvine, from Ballysillan Road in north Belfast, was handed a two-and-a-half year sentence after he admitted a range of firearm and ammunition offences – a sentence well below the minimum five years for the offences admitted.
He will spend half in custody and the rest on licence.
At Belfast Crown Court, his co-accused, Robin Workman (54), of Shore Road, Larne, was sentenced to five years – half of which will be served on licence.
Both men had pleaded guilty to possessing firearms and ammunition in suspicious circumstances.
While judges must take account of aggravating and mitigating factors when sentencing, questions have been raised over Judge Gordon Kerr's sentence.
Ex-UUP leader Doug Beattie is among those who have raised concerns.
'It's going from the bizarre to the ludicrous in so many ways,' he told BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan Show.
'The more you look at this, the more you just cannot understand what's going on. To the person on the street, it's unfathomable where we find ourselves now.
'I've said this before – take away the personality, take away the flag of convenience that these people use, look at this with the facts in front of you.
'They tell you this man was a serious danger. Those weapons were destined to go somewhere or were coming from somewhere. That needed the minimum sentence. Then you add the personality to it and you suddenly realise this person has been given so much privilege in what he's been doing.
'This should have been an aggravating factor. He should have got more than five years because of that. It's absolutely ludicrous.'
Mr Beattie said ending segregation in prisons should have happened a long time ago.
'On the issue of separation in prison, I believe it should be gone,' he added, referring to the practice which allows prisoners convicted of paramilitary offences to be housed with fellow paramilitary prisoners.
'It might not be as privileged as people think. I did notice on one occasion where prisoners are locked in their cells to eat lunch, for example, whereas those on the separate regime are allowed to freely mingle together. They get more time out of their cells.
'But that's not the point here. The point is we in society are trying to get rid of those who class themselves as brigadiers in our society. We go through the law, put them in jail, and what do we do in jail? We put them on a wing that gives them that kudos of being a brigadier. When they come out, they go back to doing exactly what they were doing before with that extra kudos hanging over their shoulders.
'That's why I have always argued that the separated prison regime should go. It should have gone a long time ago.
'I will be meeting the Director of Public Prosecutions today for a long-standing appointment about sentencing in general, but I will be raising this particular issue.
'The confidence in our justice system is at an all-time low because of the way we look at issues of sentencing, and particularly at issues like this where somebody was caught with weapons, live ammunition and still hasn't said what they were for and where they were going.
'It's absolutely rubbing the noses of law-abiding citizens into the ground when we see something like this happening. There may be good reasons for all of this, but if that's the case then people need to come out and tell us what those good reasons are. We need that transparency and I haven't seen that.
'I cannot understand why Winston Irvine was not charged under terrorist legislation and why he was not sentenced under terrorist legislation. All of the evidence, as far as I'm concerned as a lay person, tells me there is absolutely a link here.'
Watch: Winston 'Winkie' Irivine arrives at Laganside Courts
The Northern Ireland Prison Service does not comment on individual prisoners. On the wider issue of separation - if a prisoner, whether sentenced or on remand, applies for and subsequently meets the criteria set by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland for separation, then the Prison Service holds that individual in accommodation apart from the integrated population.'A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said: '
