The Five Demands

Il killer lealista Torrens Knight, scoppia in lacrime nel corso di un’udienza nel processo per l’aggressione di due sorelle a Coleraine

Torrens Knight, lealista di spicco, ha ammesso tra le lacrime di essere stata una ‘cattiva persona’ al cospetto dell’Antrim County Court, che dovrà decidere della sua sorte nel processo d’appello per l’aggressione di due sorelle avvenuto a Coleraine 2 anni fa.
Knight, 40 anni e originario di Ashdale, ha confessato di aver  aggredito le due donne, dopo che queste avevano appellato sua moglie: ‘una vagabonda’.
L’uomo ha affermato di essersi sentito maggiormente ferito da quell’offesa piuttosto che da quella a lui direttamente rivolta, con la quale le due sorelle lo avevano definito un ‘sacco di merda assassino’.
“La gente ha il diritto di chiamarmi così, se vuole, perché questo è ciò che sono – o ero”.
“Sono stato un uomo cattivo, ma il mio passato è il mio passato. Voglio vivere in pace adesso”, ha affermato Knight.
Il lealista, che dopo l’arresto non si era vergognato del suo gesto, aveva avvicinato le sorelle in un bar di Coleraine nel tentativo di quietare i rapporti tesi che si erano venuti a creare tra le due donne e la famiglia della moglie.
A quel punto le due vittime iniziarono ad accusare Knight di aver sparato ad un loro fratello, nonostante l’imputato affermasse che era dimostrabile la sua assenza dal paese in quel momento.
Knight ha dichiarato di aver agito per legittima difesa.
Torrens Knight è un esponente lealista conosciuto come il ‘killer di Greysteel‘. Nel 1993 venne accusato dell’omicidio di 12 persone, tra cui 8 morte nell’attentato al Rising Sun Pub.
Rilasciato sulla base dei principi sanciti dal Good Friday Agreement, venne rispedito in carcere per il reato di aggressione sul quale si deciderà in questo processo.

Knight admits being a ‘bad man’ (BBC News Northern Ireland)
Loyalist killer Torrens Knight has broken down in court in tears, saying that he had been a “bad man” who had done “terrible things in the past”.
Knight, 40, from Ashdale, Coleraine, was giving evidence in his appeal against a a conviction for assaulting two sisters in a bar in the town.
He claimed he was hurt after they called his wife a “tramp”.
Knight was jailed for life for 12 murders in 1993, including the killings of eight people in the Rising Sun pub.
He was later freed under the Good Friday Agreement early release scheme but sent back to jail following his conviction for attacking the sisters two years ago.
Knight told his appear at Antrim County Court that their insult hurt him more than them calling him a “murdering scumbag”.
“People have a right to call me that if they want, because that is what I am – or was.
“I have been a bad man but my past is my past. I want to live in peace now,” Knight claimed.
But he admitted that after the attack he told police that he was not ashamed of what he had done in the past.
He added: “That was an off the cuff remark which I should not have made”.
Knight said he had been through a lot but it was “self-inflicted”.
He said the papers had written a lot of things about him, but he had developed a thick skin.
However, he said that the sisters’ should not have insulted his wife.
Fighting back tears, he said “she is a good girl”.
Knight said he had approached the sisters in the bar to make peace with them because there had been bad blood between them and his wife’s family.
He said the sisters blamed him for shooting their brother, but said that he could prove that he had not even been in the country at the time.
He denied that he struck the first blow in the pub and said he had only been acting in self-defence.