Michael Stone to appeal parole verdict at Supreme Court

Michael Stone was convicted of trying to kill Sinn Féin leaders at Stormont in 2006

Loyalist killer Michael Stone has secured a Supreme Court date for his bid to overturn a verdict that he must remain in prison for five more years.

In January, the High Court ruled Stone could not be considered for release until July 2024.

On Thursday, lawyers said the 64-year-old's case would be heard in London in October.

Stone is pursuing two separate legal routes, aimed at achieving a release from prison.

• Stone parole to be challenged

• Killer opens art show while on release

In 1988, he was convicted of killing six people during the Troubles and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

He was freed under the terms of the Good Friday peace agreement in 2000.

Stone fired shots and threw grenades at mourners at the funerals of three IRA members

However, he was returned to jail six years later for trying to kill Sinn Féin leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness at Stormont in 2006.

He denied his actions were an attempt to kill the politicians, claiming it was an act of performance art.

Stone's case had been due to go before parole commissioners in January on the basis that he had served 30 years.

Deborah McGuinness, the sister of one of his victims, challenged his parole.

Her brother Thomas McErlean was among three people killed during a grenade attack carried out by Stone on an IRA funeral in west Belfast in March 1988.

Stone was also the gunman in another three separate killings.

Deborah McGuinness (centre) challenged Stone's parole

Ms McGuinness successfully argued that the six years Stone had spent out on licence, before the Stormont attack, should not count towards his 30-year minimum term of imprisonment.

In January, judges said Stormont's Department of Justice had wrongly determined Stone would be eligible to seek parole.

That determination will be tested at the Supreme Court.

Stone is also due to go before a panel of the Sentence Review Commissioners (SRC) this month to appeal its preliminary indication that his application to be freed early for a second time, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, should be refused.

Ms McGuinness is also issuing a judicial review challenge against the SRC's jurisdiction to consider Stone's application.

On Thursday, the High Court in Belfast gave permission for commissioners to hear Stone's appeal over their preliminary indication, scheduled for the end of August.

Mr Justice McCloskey also confirmed the judicial review would take place in September.