UVF killer Jimmy ‘Shades’ Smyth was all smiles as he tied the knot with his Catholic bride yesterday.
The loyalist, who has been linked to numerous sectarian murders, got hitched to his wife, who we are not naming, at the Dunsilly Hotel in Antrim.
Our exclusive pictures show the happy couple — the bride radiant as she clutches a bouquet of flowers — grinning as they celebrate their special day with friends and family.
A source said: “They both looked very happy and were full of smiles and laughter. They even had their dog in tow, enjoying the big day.
“They were lucky with the weather. The sun was splitting the trees. It was a gorgeous day.
“It’s a far cry from Jimmy’s murderous past.”
Jimmy Smyth outside the Dunsilly Hotel in Antrim
Following the nuptials, the pair travelled to the Antrim Castle Gardens, where they posed for snaps among the flower beds with their bridesmaids and groomsmen.
Last year, 59-year-old Smyth was acquitted of the double murder of two Catholic construction workers in Belfast.
He was found not guilty of killing Eamon Fox and Gary Convie in May 1994 as well as being acquitted of one count of attempted murder, possession of a firearm and UVF membership.
His bloodlust was made clear by Mr Justice O’Hara who, although clearing him of the Convie and Fox murders, said Smyth was “happy to murder Catholics just for being Catholics”.
Smyth was jailed for life for the 1994 murder of Cormac McDermott but was freed in 2000 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. Despite last year’s acquittals, he has previously been linked to two other killings.
He was named by UVF informants Mark Haddock and Terry Fairfield as firing the fatal shots into the head of Gerard Brady, a Catholic taxi driver who was gunned down by the terror gang in Antrim in 1994.
The couple grinning as they celebrate their special day
Several sources have also identified Smyth as the teenage gunman who murdered Adrian Carroll in Armagh in 1983, a crime that sparked the notorious UDR Four case, which saw three soldiers wrongly convicted of the killing.
A fourth squaddie, Neil Latimer, who served 15 years in prison for murder, still maintains his innocence.
While he was being hunted by police in connection with the McDermott attack, Smyth was suspected of the killings of Convie and Fox.
His lengthy trial last year heard evidence from UVF supergrass Gary Haggarty, who was deemed an unreliable witness by Crown Court judge Mr Justice O’Hara.
In June 1994 — while still evading cops over the McDermott shooting — Smyth is believed to have killed Brady.
The 27-year-old’s taxi was flagged down in Antrim town by Haddock and a second paramilitary.
Mr Brady was ordered to drive to the loyalist Woodburn estate in Carrickfergus, where he was shot.
In a meeting with his police handlers days later, Haddock named the gunman as Smyth.
He even told detectives that he was so close to the shooting that “the bullet shells burnt my hands”.
Wedding of UVF hitman Jimmy “Shades’ Smyth in Antrim
Despite this confession, neither Haddock nor Smyth were prosecuted for the Brady murder.
A short time later, Smyth was arrested and charged with the McDermott killing.
Detectives investigating the shooting were able to link him to rare prescription glasses found at the murder scene.
McDermott’s wife had knocked them off Smyth’s face during a struggle when he burst into their Ballymena home and shot her husband.
CID documents obtained by Sunday Life, which detail Fairfield’s 1997 RUC debrief, show that he named Brady’s murderer to police.
Smyth has never faced charges connected to the Brady shooting, despite it being widely accepted in paramilitary circles that he was involved.
by heresmewhaa
12 comments
Awww, some cross-community love!!/s
Loyalists never appear to be the sharpest tools in the box. They hate Catholics but I don’t think they understand why. It must be terribly confusing when they catch feelings for one.
What’s she thinking?
She must be really fucking down on her luck.
Man realises his mistakes and turns his life around – surely this is a good story, no?
Her family will disown her. I would.
Udr four….?
Must look into that story….never heard of it..great information there lad…
Goes to show you, never get too involved/invested in something you think is right at the time for it’s all circumstantial. Could you imagine telling him in the height of the troubles he’d marry a Catholic? This is life and an example of how people need to be smarter with life decisions and not just act a hard lad for your mates during a certain time.. Fella should be ashamed of himself for the headache he’s caused only to end up marrying those he hated and killed. Root
KATUTSM
(Kill All Taigs Unless They’ll Shag Me)
What is going on in her head?
Majority of the time it simply bodes down to them vs us in the eyes of these guys, they don’t actually care about the religion.
I know friends of friends who despise Catholics/protestants until they hang out with one unbeknownst to them but then instead of thinking “ah maybe my views are wrong” they think “oh that’s singular person is the exception”
I’ve a family member who’s in jail for murder of a catholic, we’re a mixed family, his own mother is a catholic and he’ll claim to love her to bits.
People have to keep the same views they had when they were 18 for ever? Nobody should change? Bizzaire logic.
Growing up, I foolishly got involved in sectarian rioting etc. Once the Es came I started partying with catholics and eventually married one and raised my children as catholic. Was that the wrong thing to do?
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