Four men to serve 'more than 60 years' for Colin Horner murder
Four Co Down men will serve a total of 62-and-a-half years for the murder of Colin Horner in Bangor in May 2017.
Last updated 29th Jan 2019
The 35-year-old was shot at least five times as part of an ongoing South East Antrim UDA feud, in a Sainsbury's car park.
The brutal murder happened in front of his then three-year-old son Oscar.
At Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday, Justice Colton sentenced four men for their involvement in the murder.
Alan James Wilson, 30, of North Green in Newtownards and 31-year-old Ryan Smyth from Windsor Gardens in Bangor will both serve 16 years in jail before they can apply to be released on license.
35-year-old Joseph Blair, from Shackleton Walk in Newtownards will serve 15 and a half years, while Robert Ralph, 47, of Donaghadee Road, will spend 15 years in jail at least.
There were suspended sentences for Adrian Gordon Price from Bristol Park in Newtownards, with the 48 year old given 12 months suspended for two years.
Terrie Aicken, 24, from the Green Road in Conlig was handed a three month sentence suspended for a year, both of those for perverting the course of justice.
During the course of the sentencing, the defendants turned to the public gallery several times, laughing, smiling and waving.
Speaking outside the court, Mr Horner's emotional mother Leslie said she was glad the family had secured justice.
"Nothing is going to bring him back," she said.
"We have a life sentence in that regard but at least they are away for a very long time.
"I know there are families out there who haven't had justice.
"I'm not saying we're lucky, the pain this has caused me and my family has just been excruciating.
"But we have to hope for Colin that he'll live on through his two children and through me, I'll keep his memory alive forever.
"He was a good boy, it was put out there about a loyalist feud and this, that and the other.
"My son was murdered because he stood up to scum, he wanted to get on with his life, but they wouldn't leave him alone."
The PSNI's DCI Peter McKenna welcomed the sentencing, but said the damage had already been done for Mr Horner's young son Oscar.
"This was a cold, calculated, premeditated murder," he said.
"It beggars belief that the four men involved in this murder gave no thought to the trauma or anguish they were causing to other people present when this brutal assassination took place, in particular Colin's young son who was only a toddler at the time.
"I think it's fair to say it's had a massively traumatic impact, for a three-year-old child.
"For anybody to witness that, the medical specifics I can't go into, but I can say from a reasonable point of view, as a father myself, that's going to have a massively traumatic effect."
Prosecuting barristers said they could not identify the actual gunman in the murder and did not rule out the possibility that there may have been further direction in the committing of the crime, with other people not before the court involved.