A son of one of Gary Haggarty's victims claimed "the law in this country is designed to look after the criminals" after the loyalist supergrass had his 35-year jail term for hundreds of paramilitary offences reduced to six-and-a-half.
Kieran Fox criticised the system which is expected to see the 46-year-old walk free within weeks, despite admitting five murders including those of his father Eamon and fellow worker Gary Convie in north Belfast in 1994.
With time spent on remand, Haggarty is now eligible to go before the Life Sentence Parole Commissioners to secure his release.
Mr Justice Colton told the former UVF commander that while his 202 serious crimes "had caused untold damage to individual lives and society as a whole'' he was discounting his sentence because he had agreed to become an "assisting offender''.
Haggarty, formerly of Rush Park on the northern outskirts of Belfast but now with an address as c/o PSNI Knocknagoney in east Belfast, pleaded guilty last year to a catalogue of offences including five murders, one of aiding and abetting murder, five of attempted murder and 23 counts of conspiracy to murder.
He also asked for a further 301 offences to be "taken into consideration''.
Relatives of Haggarty's victims sat listening intently in the public gallery yesterday during the one-hour sentencing hearing for crimes committed over a 16-year period from 1991 until 2007.
He was first arrested in 2009 by detectives from the now disbanded Historical Enquiry Team (HET) over the hammer attack murder of John Harbinson, who was beaten to death in a street known as "kneecap ally'' on the Mount Vernon estate in north Belfast in May 1997.
Haggarty - who had been working as an informer for police Special Branch for 11 years until 2004/05 - agreed to become an "assisting offender'' under the Serious Crime and Organised Police Act (SOCPA), admitting his own role in UVF-related crimes and agreeing to give evidence against other paramilitaries.
As well as involvement in the Harbinson murder, carried out while he held the rank of 'provost marshall' in the UVF, the court heard that Haggarty took the "lead role'' in the killing of Sean McParland in 1994.
He told police he was armed with a .45 Webley pistol when he shot Mr McParland "at close range in the chest'' as he babysat his daughter's children at her home in Skegoneill Avenue in north Belfast.
When he tried to shoot the throat cancer victim again, Haggarty said "there was some problem with the gun'' and his accomplice came into the house and fired a shotgun blast.
He told detectives he fully intended to murder McParland, saying: "I was on my way to kill him and it was my plan to kill him.''
He also described his involvement in the murders of "soft and easy targets'' Gary Convie and Eamon Fox as the Co Armagh men sat eating their lunch in a car on a building site in North Queen Street in May 1994.
They were shot dead by a lone gunman who fired at the them with a Sten gun through railings.
Haggarty said his role was to accompany the gunman to a gap in the fence of an adjoining playground where weeks earlier he had removed bolts.
Mr Justice Colton said: "After walking the gunman to the site of the shooting, the defendant left in his car and drove past two other members of the gang to indicate that the gunman was in place.''
Haggarty was arrested by police on his way home but was later released without charge.
He later told his RUC Special Branch handlers where the murder weapon was being stored and it was recovered 11 days later.
Haggarty also admitted the murder of Sean McDermott, who was found shot dead in a car in Antrim in August 1994, as well as aiding and abetting the murder of Peter McTasney, a 26-year-old Catholic shot dead in his home in Newtownabbey in February 1991.
The judge said he had received victim impact reports from relatives of Haggarty's victims and in the case of Mr McParland, his daughter said his brutal killing had a "huge emotional and practical effect'' on the family.
Mr Justice Colton said there had been some controversy around the alleged involvement of police officers in Haggarty's activities and some officers "failed to provide adequate protection to victims of Haggarty''.
"Further, there is anger at the decision not to rely on Haggarty's evidence to prosecute individual police officers."
But he added: "The decision whether or not to prosecute other individuals based on the evidence of the defendant is a matter for the DPP and not this court.''
Although one man is to be prosecuted in relation to the Fox and Convie murders on the back of Haggarty's evidence, prosecutors have said it is insufficient to provide a reasonable prospect of obtaining a conviction against 11 other suspected UVF members and two former police officers.
The court heard that as part of his assisting offender arrangement, Haggarty had been interviewed on over 1,000 occasions between 2010 and 2017, with the transcripts running to 12,244 pages.
"He set out in considerable detail of his own involvement in the commission of over 500 offences, which ranged from multiple murders to assault," Mr Justice Colton said.
"As a result of the information provided, not only has the defendant been charged with the offences in this case, but the prosecution have been provided with a significant amount of information in relation to very serious criminal activity.
"The defendant is willing to give evidence in court in relation to any of the matters he has disclosed at interview.
"As a result of the information he has provided, the DPP has directed that it is intended to prosecute in one case which involves murder and that the defendant will be required to given evidence in those proceedings.''
The judge added that as a result of Haggarty's decision to give evidence against former associates, he had put his own life in danger.
"In prison he has been held in solitary confinement. When released from prison he will require a new identity with the resultant impact on his family life that this entails.
"He will remain under threat for the rest of his life.''
In sentencing, he said he had to consider Haggarty's assistance to police and prosecutors, his guilty plea to all 202 offences along with his 11 years as a Special Branch agent.
Taking his starting point as a tariff of 35 years for the murder of Sean McParland, Mr Justice Colton said: "I have decided that 60 per cent of the discount should be attributable to SOCPA assistance and 15 per cent to assistance whilst he acted as a CHIS (Covert Human Intelligence Source).
"The defendant is entitled to a 25 per cent discount by reason of his pleas of guilty.
"This results in a tariff of six and a half years imprisonment before the defendant is entitled to be considered for release by the Parole Commissioners.''
Due to time spent on remand over the last eight and a half years, it is thought Haggarty can now immediately apply to be freed under a witness protection scheme.
Speaking outside Belfast's Laganside court complex, Mr Fox said while the families were "absolutely gutted" by the sentence, they already knew "he was going to be a free man".
He said they did not need Haggarty to prosecute those responsible for the murder of his father, given DNA and eye-witness evidence.
"How can a man convicted of so many crimes be set free into society? He might come across as a a nice guy but the man's a serial killer," he said.
Sinn Féin MLA Raymond McCartney last night said the families of those killed and injured by Haggarty had "received neither truth nor justice".
"This reduced sentence means that he is effectively getting away with murder," he said.
“But families are also being denied the truth around allegations that Haggarty’s RUC Special Branch may have ignored warnings about murder and may have covered up his involvement in murders and attempted murders over many years."
SDLP John Dallat also said relatives don’t believe they got justice.
"I sat in court today with families as atrocity after atrocity committed by Haggarty was catalogued. It was harrowing and a reminder of the pain that victims and survivors continue to endure as a result of a political failure to meet their needs.”
Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie said the sentence amounted to just over a year for each life taken.
“This is what passes for justice in Northern Ireland in 2018. The families of his victims are left feeling let down once again and I for one cannot blame them.”
Michael Agnew, acting deputy director of the PPS, said the discount applied to sentences in cases such as Haggarty's "is a difficult aspect of the regime, particularly for all victims and their families, but without it convictions for the many offences would not have been achieved".
“In addition, as announced last November, it is the intention of the PPS to use Haggarty as an accomplice witness in the prosecution of one suspect for the murders of Gary Convie and Eamon Fox and proceedings will issue in the coming months.
“I understand that the outcome today is not without pain for the families, but I hope that they can take some small comfort from knowing that Haggarty has been brought to account for his actions. I want to take this opportunity to express my sincere sympathy to them for all that they have endured and to pay tribute to them for the dignity they have maintained throughout the criminal justice proceedings.”
