Former soldier denies murder bid

A former paratrooper with the French Foreign Legion, who won a retrial earlier this year, yesterday went on trial in Belfast …

A former paratrooper with the French Foreign Legion, who won a retrial earlier this year, yesterday went on trial in Belfast for the second time accused of attempting to assassinate a convicted loyalist leader, Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair.

Stephen Larking (25), who was invalided out of the legion, was originally jailed for 16 years for the murder attempt on Adair and another man on March 6th 1993. He was granted a retrial when new alibi evidence was presented to the Court of Appeal.

He denies being the lone gunman who fired more than a dozen shots at Adair and Mr Donald Hodgen as they sat in Adair's car.

The defendant claims that at the time of the shooting he was attending the funeral and wake of a family friend.