BROTHERS ROBERT and Ian Stewart, who have implicated 14 people in a series of loyalist UVF crimes, repeatedly failed to name one of the accused, Darren Moore, as the gunmen’s driver in the October 2000 murder of UDA rival Tommy English.
Mr Moore’s QC, Charles Adair, suggested this was “either a coincidence, or two glaring errors”, on their part, as he questioned Robert Stewart (37) about the mental state of his younger brother, Ian.
Mr Stewart, who refused to be drawn on the matter of his brother’s wellbeing as they made statements to police, admitted that on 21 occasions he had failed to mention Mr Moore before putting him into the frame.
“So we should accept your 22nd version and leave the other 21?” asked Mr Adair.
“Accept what you want,” Mr Stewart told Belfast Crown Court.
Mr Stewart, who rejected that what he was saying was “nonsense”, claimed that while it “obviously a glaring error”, he knew it was going to be used against him in court and that he “would be ripped into”. As he continued to question the self-confessed terrorist, Mr Adair put it to him that he was “just making this up as you go along, I would suggest to you”.
“I would suggest not,” replied Mr Stewart. Later he was to tell trial judge Mr Justice Gillen that he accepted not mentioning Mr Moore was a “gaping error”, but that he was just trying to explain how it occurred and he had “no reason to lie about any of that”.
Still later he told the court: “I have accepted for two days now it’s a glaring error.” Mr Stewart was also quizzed about his claims Mr Moore was also the driver in another incident four years earlier in January 1996, in which a man was “given a hiding” by his UVF squad. So bad was the beating that the alleyway in which it occurred was afterwards called “Toots Lane”, the nickname of the victim.
Although Mr Adair reminded Mr Stewart it had been the police who had first mentioned the punishment beating, he told him he was not suggesting that he, Mr Stewart, was not involved in it. “Thank God for that,” said Mr Stewart, “we are agreeing on something.”
However, Mr Adair pointed out that as in the English murder, he had never seen Mr Moore driving the car, “never mind the car”, in this incident either.
“Moore always drove,” said Mr Stewart.
“That’s your answer to both ...Moore always drove,” said the lawyer.
Mr Justice Gillen, in an effort to clarify Mr Stewart’s evidence, on occasions asked him if he had a “clear memory” or had his “memory improved” about what he was saying.
Mr Stewart explained that what he told the court, “is what I remember . . . as I said, my Lord, this was a long time ago”, although he admitted that he “hadn’t really been thinking about” what he had told police, repeating that he was trying to do his best.