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Man cleared of 1994 murders of Co Armagh men on Belfast building site

Gary Convie and Eamon Fox

A man has been found not guilty of the 1994 murders of two Co Armagh catholic workmen workmen at a building site in Belfast.

Gary Convie and Eamon Fox were shot as they sat eating lunch in a car at a building site on North Queen Street.

James Stewart Smyth, 57, from Forthriver Link in Belfast, was today cleared of their murders – charges he denied for years.

Smyth was also cleared of attempted murder, possessing a firearm and membership of the UVF.

Acquitting Smyth, Mr Justice O’Hara said he had doubts across a number of issues, including some eyewitness evidence about the gunman’s height and DNA evidence.

The judge also cast doubt on the prosecutions’s main witness, loyalist-turned-supergrass Gary Haggarty, describing him as unreliable.

Mr Fox, who was 44, had six children. Mr Convie was 24 and a father of one. Their families’ quest for justice goes on.

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