Ten years ago today notorious killer Michael Stone attempted to break into Stormont and assassinate Sinn Fein leaders, Martin Mc Guinness and Gerry Adams.
He later described his actions as performance art.
Irish News journalist Allison Morris, who reported from the loyalist murderer’s subsequent trial and sentencing, reflects on the sorry figure that Stone has become.
"I was in the court the day he was sentenced and I was the only journalist who was there. The interest in it had totally faded by that point.
"There was nobody in the public gallery, there were none of his family, none of his supporters...At one point a school trip who were visiting the courts wondered in and sat down, decided it was too boring and got up and went back out again."
Stone 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.
"He ended up a sad, little old man wriggling around in the dock crippled with arthritis', said Morris
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.
