A LOYALIST with a history of violence was jailed for 16 years yesterday for blasting his former lover to death with a shotgun after she ended their relationship.
However, Fred McClenaghan (52) of Broad Street in Magherafelt, Co Derry, could be free in just over 11 years after the judge told him his sentence would date from the day he shot Marion Millican dead.
It was the second time McClenaghan had been convicted of murdering the mother-of-four in March 2011 at the Portstewart launderette where she worked.
He claimed her death was an accident and that the antique shotgun he was armed with went off accidentally during a struggle.
His original conviction in 2012 was quashed on a technicality and a retrial ordered.
The victim's family spoke of their "disappointment" at the sentence.
The Irish News previously revealed that McClenaghan has strong links to loyalist paramilitaries and is believed to have been responsible for directing sectarian attacks on Catholic-owned homes and property in Magherafelt in recent years.
The town's notorious Leckagh estate, the scene of dozens of sectarian attacks including pipe bombings of homes belonging to Catholics and people in mixed marriages, was a favoured stomping ground of the loyalist thug.
McClenaghan is also suspected of orchestrating serious sectarian clashes between loyalist and nationalist youths in the normally peaceful town in 2007.
In the months before the murder McClenaghan - who has convictions for assault and domestic abuse - launched a series of violent attacks on Mrs Millican.
He tried to strangle her and once knocked her unconscious.
When she got back with her husband McClenaghan told counsellors that he planned to kill his girlfriend and then himself.
McClenaghan, however, claimed he was suffering from a "severe'' mental health disorder and intended to kill himself in front of Mrs Millican whose death he said was a terrible accident.
His lawyers claimed he was failed by the system which did not act quickly enough to help him.
Three police officers were later disciplined for failing to act on reports over a threat that McClenaghan had a gun.
* MURDER: Fred McClenaghan shot Marion Millican dead
? Court report ? P5