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‘How did Winkie get half my sentence?' – Robber says loyalist is state agent
Robber who was jailed after being forced to store guns for drugs gang hits out at UVF leader's prison term
Gerard Porter was handed the minimum sentence of five years after he was forced to store guns for a drugs gang, while Winston 'Winkie' Irvine was given half that
Winkie Irvine's guns and bullets sentence has been blasted by a Belfast man who served twice as long for a lesser firearms offence.
Gerard Porter says it's a disgrace that UVF boss Irvine was given just two and a half years last month for possession of guns and ammunition, with just half to be served behind bars.
When Gerard was forced by a drugs gang to store weapons, he was given the minimum tariff of five years, and also lost out on time off his sentence for the eight months he'd spent on remand.
The 56-year-old, who'd had the weapons for just a few hours when he was arrested in May 2018, was acting under duress to clear a debt to the gang, and posed no threat as there was no ammunition.
He also has no terrorist connection.
Winston 'Winkie' Irvine
'When Winkie Irvine was sentenced I thought is there a rule for one and a rule for the other. It was brutal,' he says.
'I think he's definitely a protected state agent. There's one rule for the Catholic community and one rule for the loyalist community. Why should I get five years and I wasn't caught with any bullets?
'The judge said to me the minimum sentence I can give you is five years. The minimum is the lowest, so how did he get half of my sentence?'
The UVF man's tariff has been criticised by politicians including First Minister Michelle O'Neill and the UUP's Doug Beattie and has now been referred by the PPS to the Court of Appeal as unduly lenient.
Gun found by police when they stopped 'Winkie' Irvine
Ammo found by police when they stopped 'Winkie'
Irvine, from Ballysillan Road in Belfast, has never given any explanation for having the long-barrelled firearm, two suspected pistols, several magazines and a large quantity of ammunition which were discovered inside a holdall in his boot.
The guns and ammunition had been moved from co-accused Robin Workman's van to the boot of Irvine's car in the Glencairn area of Belfast, before Winkie was stopped by the PSNI in Disraeli Street.
He gave no-comment responses to police following his arrest in June 2022, but provided a prepared statement that he was 'a trusted interlocutor engaging with the community on key outstanding issues in relation to the Northern Ireland peace and political process'.
Workman, of Shore Road, Larne — who pleaded guilty to an additional charge of possessing an air rifle without a certificate — was given the minimum sentence of five years, which is not being appealed by the PPS.
Both men will serve half their sentences in jail and half on licence.
Robin Workman
During sentencing, Judge Gordon Kerr cited exceptional circumstances, including the impact on Irvine's wife and four children. He said he did not consider the crimes to be connected to terrorism. However, Irvine was allegedly the notorious commander of UVF B Company on the Shankill Road, raking in thousands of pounds a week from its drugs and racketeering.
'He's a known loyalist terrorist. I'm not a terrorist. I'm an ordinary Joe,' says Gerard.
'I was caught with guns in suspicious circumstances. He was caught with guns and bullets, and he gets half of what I got.
'I couldn't have shot anyone with those guns; I had no bullets.'
Gerard had a decades-old conviction for armed robbery with an imitation firearm but says he'd kept out of trouble until the drugs gang exacted their revenge on him.
The west Belfast grandfather worked as a scrap man when he ended up on the wrong side of the gang.
'I hadn't been in trouble with any sort of guns until those guns,' he says.
'I was a go-between, getting stuff for other people, because I had a good name.
'People were asking 'can you get me this' and 'get me that' and I would get it and I wasn't getting paid. It was building up and building up and when it came to eight grand I said 'I'm out', and that's when the trouble started.
'It was cocaine. I wasn't taking it or selling it. Out of all the things I've done in my life, I don't sell drugs.'
Gerard Porter was handed the minimum sentence of five years after he was forced to store guns for a drugs gang, while Winston 'Winkie' Irvine was given half that
News in 90 Seconds - June 26th
The debt had been hanging over him for several years when the gang asked him to hold guns for them overnight, with the clear message that he'd come to harm if he didn't.
Within hours of the weapons arriving at his house in Cluain Mor Drive, the police were at his door.
'I was under duress. They [the drug gang] were going to beat me to get the drug debt.
'Hopefully I was getting shot of the guns the next day, but I didn't — what I got was Maghaberry.
'I knew right away what was happening. The cops didn't even come in with a search warrant.
'I don't know whether someone was getting paid for the information but the drug debt they got in the end was getting me put in jail.'
In prison in Maghaberry and later Magilligan, he suffered a stroke and was saved by Albert Armstrong, the double killer jailed for 14 years in 2016 for the samurai sword murders of senior loyalist Colin 'Bap' Lindsay and his friend Stanley Wightman.
'Albert saved my life. He got me up and got me sorted and shouted to the screws I needed help,' says Gerard.
He's now had to move out of west Belfast and away from his family.
He believes the Court of Appeal should increase Irvine's sentence to at least five years.
'I hope he gets a proper sentence, and the judge told me it starts at five years. I'm going by what the justice system told me.
'It has to be fair,' he says.
