LOYALIST killer Michael Stone should remain behind bars until he undergoes a major mental health assessment, a leading Troubles author has said.
Troubles journalist and writer Martin Dillon said he believed authorities had failed to identify him as a major risk after the Milltown attacks. Describing Stone as a “sociopath” he said he “was processed without the kind of knowledge that would have possibly led to him being diagnosed as an aggressive psychopath”.
Stone, who is behind bars for trying to kill Sinn Féin leaders at Stormont in November 2006, is not due for release until Spring 2018 when he will have to apply to parole commissioners.
However, it is believed the 61-year-old could be released sooner on compassionate grounds given his rapidly deteriorating health. It was 10 years ago tomorrow that Stone launched a botched attack on Stormont.
He later described his actions as performance art. He had served 12 years of a 30-year term for the three murders at Milltown in 1988 and three other sectarian killings but was released in 2000 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. Dillon, whose book on the loyalist hitman Stone Cold published in 1992, said failures to identify him as a major risk after Milltown meant it was inevitable he would attempt another mass attack.
Describing how Stone had established himself as a “poster boy for mass murder” he said Stone never ceased to “revel in his killer status”. Writing in today’s Irish News Dillon said: “In his twisted logic his failure to kill McGuinness and Adams in 1988 had been a classic failure he could not accept.”
