'Festival of scum' to hit the streets as Ulster's most notorious killers to be freed
We reveal list of life-sentence prisoners to be given permanent freedom or sent to city's open prison
Pacemaker Press 16/6/09 Stephen Allister arrives at Lisburn Courthouse charged with the murder of Darren Roberts who was stabbed at the weekend Pic Colm Lenaghan / Pacemaker
A 'festival of scum' will be set loose on the streets of Northern Ireland as some of the country's most notorious killers are due for release.
They include monsters like Stephen 'Bulldog' Scott who hacksawed the body of his pregnant teenage girlfriend Sylvia Fleming after he'd murdered her in 1998, and Andrew Robinson, jailed for life for stabbing his fiancée, Julie-Anne Osborne, nearly 50 times in 2001.
The Sunday World has been informed about the list of killers and other life-sentence prisoners who are due to be either released completely or are due to be sent to Burren House – the Northern Ireland Prison Service's 'open prison' unit designed to prepare lifers for permanent release.
Scott and Robinson are currently in Burren even though they were released from jail years ago. They were returned after breaching their licence but they are due to be released on licence again, we understand in the summer.
Scott was returned to prison last March after he was caught with gun parts and ammunition but told the court he was building his own gun to kill vermin on a farm where he was working as a labourer.
UDA knife-killer Andy Robinson.
In October 2023 the Sunday World revealed how 47-year-old Robinson had been set free and was confronted by a relative of his murder victim when she spotted him drunk at a bus stop in Belfast.
The Sunday World has learned there are currently 16 offenders currently in Burren House and there are 14 on the waiting list.
A list of inmates due to go to the special prison unit – which costs £55,000 per inmate per year – has been passed to us by a whistleblower who says many of the soon-to-be new arrivals have had multiple chances in Burren but been sent back every time.
Among those waiting in Maghaberry to be moved into Burren are cold-blooded killer Stephen Allister who was given a life sentence in 2011 for stabbing to death father-of-one Darren Roberts in an unprovoked attack.
Stephen Scott found guilty of murdering his girlfriend Sylvia Fleming. Picture: Justin Kernoghan
News in 90 Seconds - May 23rd
Also due to be sent to Burren in the coming weeks is Belfast killer Robert Scott who stabbed his childhood friend, Richard Hicking, 21 times before attending a street party to celebrate the royal wedding of William and Kate.
Richard Hicking's body was found in his flat at Clarawood Park in east Belfast on April 30, 2011. The 31-year-old was found lying in a pool of dried blood in his flat.
He had been stabbed 14 times in the chest, six times in the side and once in the middle of his back. Scott, an alcoholic, later claimed he held back from confessing because 'there's always this part of you thinks you can get away with it'.
And they'll be joined by murderer Kevin McCartney who stabbed Craigavon father-of-two David Neill in 2012 and Keoghan McGuigan who got 20 years for beating to death Patrick Keenan in a bedroom at his Newry home in June 2004 – all just to get his £2,000 Mercedes car.
Burren House. Photo: Colm O'Reilly
And incredibly also due to be given the opportunity to live a semi-free life in Burren House, in preparation for final release is 47-year-old golf club killer Dean Woods, who went on the run only last August during his last stay at Burren before police recaptured him a week later.
Woods, who was aged 18 at the time of the murder, was sentenced to life imprisonment after the killing of 26-year-old Brian Peden in December 1995, who he hit on the head with a golf club.
'Each of these men have only just recently been suspended from the unit for absconding, breeching conditions and curfew checks, failing drug tests and not being open and honest about relationships, yet here they are just a few weeks later being prepared to be returned to open conditions,' said a whistleblower.
'It's a festival of scum and it's a recipe for disaster and the Prison Service should be accountable and the public made aware that the people who are supposed to keep them safe from such men are failing them.
'Also already in the unit are the likes of Stephen Scott and Andrew Robinson who have already had their chance and broken the trust – Scott was first released nearly ten years ago but has breached his licence more than a dozen times yet he keeps getting chance after chance.
'Stephen Scott was recalled off his licence over firearms charges but he's getting yet another chance despite committing such a serious offence. There have also been issues around non-disclosure of relationships and general dishonesty, but things such as drugs/alcohol seem to be non-issues for him.'
Dean Michael Woods.
As previously reported here, whistleblowers in the Prison Service have told this paper there is anger among some prison officers because of a perceived lack of fairness in who gets a chance to go to Burren and who doesn't.
Burren House holds up to 20 prisoners in unlocked cells at a site in the grounds of the old Crumlin Road jail in Belfast.
Security sources want a review of the selection process, pointing out how some prisoners have been moved there multiple times despite their repeat rule-breaking.
'They are all planned to be moved before the summer,' said the whistleblower. 'There are some of the guys in both prisons (Maghaberry and Magilligan) who have never had a chance at Burren and who have done everything that has been asked of them and they keep getting told that there is no space and there are other people ahead of them in the queue. This is hardly fair that someone who is engaged and willing is getting a knock-back at the expense of these scumbags who will clearly never learn.
'But somehow all of these people who are due to go to Burren have made their way to the top of the list when there are others more deserving and who probably won't throw it back in anyone's face.
'Stephen Allister has had multiple opportunities in Burren and keeps getting chance after chance. What is worse is he is so arrogant and flippant about it, thinking he is entitled and that he did not do anything wrong.
'Robert Scott was taken off it just a few months ago for failing a drug test, he gave a sob story about a sore stomach and now he is already getting out again.
'He is pathetic – he still thinks his name carries weight out in the world. He has been suspected and interviewed about quite a few murders.
'Kevin McCartney was also suspended a few months ago because officers in Burren called out to his house to do a curfew check and he was nowhere to be found but he's the next one to be returned.'
Stephen 'Bulldog' Scott was first released from Maghaberry Prison in 2017 after serving a 19-year jail term for the 1998 murder of his pregnant teenage girlfriend Sylvia Fleming.
It remains one of the most shocking murders to ever take place in Northern Ireland.
The monster, who has repeatedly breached his licence, had given her sleeping pills before tying her to a bed.
She was blindfolded, injected with insulin and later smothered.
The psycho then hacksawed his young victim's body into eight pieces and buried each part wrapped in sacks in a nearby building site in the town.
It was a further eight weeks before Sylvia's body was found and Scott was arrested.
Sylvia Fleming.
The Sunday World previously revealed how the Prison Service faced criticism after Derry killer James Meehan went on the run across the border to Co Meath just a few months after he'd been extradited back to Northern Ireland following a previous escape from prison.
Meehan went awol over five months ago from Magilligan Prison for a second time, completely cleared out his 'tuck-shop' bank account and even packed up his whole wardrobe of clothes – despite him only supposedly being set free for the day.
Meehan was sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of popular Derry man 'Gentle' Jim McFadden in May 2007 and prison sources said despite his repeated flits to the Republic, he kept being given another chance at pre-release because he was favoured by prison chiefs due to him operating as a handyman around the jail.
Previously the Prison Service have told the Sunday World: 'Pre-release testing is complex... it is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Prison Service to prepare these individuals for release and reintegration back into society.
'After being risk assessed, prisoners begin graduated release into the community, firstly under supervision then progressing to short periods of unaccompanied release where they work in the community.
'The reality is that a small number will fail this test. The alternative would be to simply release people without any prior testing which would pose a far greater risk to public safety.'
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He said he has shared the book with a number of former combatants who have given it their seal of approval on what was a decisive moment in our history. 'One combatant told me, 'Mate, that's not a novel, that's a true story'. I hope it goes some way to shedding some light on what may or may not have happened.' Billy McKee joined the Prison Service as a 22-year-old never intending it to be his career, but he quickly rose through the ranks, eventually finding himself governor at Maghaberry and the Maze. At the height of the Troubles the job was fraught with risk. He had to move house three times at short notice because of death threats. 'I'd get a call in the middle of the night from the security services telling me, 'Get out of the house now, they're on their way to kill you'. The police couldn't come in case it compromised an informant or agent. The government would move us to another house until it happened again.' The pressure was too much for his marriage, which collapsed. 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