A FORMER INLA killer who carried out a "bloody revenge killing" then fled to the Republic, has been jailed for a minimum of 20 years.
Frankie 'Studs' Lanigan (56) was convicted at Belfast Crown Court in May of shooting John Knocker in May 1998 outside the Glengannon Hotel in Dungannon.
Lanigan denied he was the gunman and spent six years fighting extradition.
The court heard the 22-year-old had got the better of him in a fight outside the former Co Tyrone hotel just moments before the attack.
Yesterday trial judge Mr Justice Horner told Lanigan that the murder of Mr Knocker was an "act of barbarous inhumanity".
Before his capture by an undercover Garda unit Lanigan had lived in Dublin and worked as a barber under the name Ciaran McCrory.
A seasoned gunman and former INLA member, Lanigan is thought to have been a 'gunman for hire' while on the run and was linked to paramilitary-style killings including the 1998 murder of drug dealer Brendan Campbell and the 2004 murder of Kevin McAlorum.
During protracted legal battles in his fight against extradition Lanigan argued his life would be at risk from loyalist and republican paramilitaries if he was sent back to Northern Ireland.
Given the Covid-19 pandemic, Lanigan, formerly of Knockmore Square in Lisburn, Co Antrim, appeared before Belfast Crown Court sentencing hearing via video-link from Maghaberry Prison.
Mr Justice Horner told the remote hearing that he had read the "heartbreaking statements'' of Mr Knocker's partner, who was pregnant at the time of his murder, and also his daughter who was born after his brutal killing and is now aged 20.
"His partner lost her soul mate. Following his murder she lived in fear and suffered enormous mental upset and anxiety. Her only means of coping was to leave Ireland behind and all her family and friends.''
The court heard that Mr Knocker's daughter has also suffered mental health issues as a result of his murder and "continues to be haunted by the spectre of her father's murder''.
Mr Justice Horner said a statement from the deceased's mother had described in "moving detail'' how his savage murder had left a "broken family mired in grief for all time''.
Mr Justice Horner remarked that Lanigan was not just content to fire at Mr Knocker from a distance and seriously injure him but was "intent on taking his life'' and as Mr Knocker lay prone on the ground, the defendant "fired s shot at him at point blank range....into his brain to make death a certainty''.
Lanigan also had a previous conviction for possession of a firearm with intent and received a ten year sentence which the judge noted had "singularly failed to act as a deterrent to this future offending''.
Mr Justice Horner further noted that Lanigan had shown a "complete lack of remorse'' for the murder.
Taking all the aggravating factors into account, the judge said he was fixing the minimum term before Lanigan would eligible to apply to the Parole Commissioners for release as 20 years in prison.
Lanigan also received a 14 year concurrent sentence for possession of the Browning pistol murder weapon.
As Mr Justice Horner finished his tariff sentencing, Lanigan could be heard telling a prison officer in the Maghaberry video unit: "It that it finished? Let's go. I'm going to be in here for the next 20 years.''
