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05 EURO) Friday, December 30, 2011

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Howell will not testify against ex

Killer Colin Howell has told friends that he will not testify against his exwife Kyle Jorgensen, who is under investigation for withholding information about his double murder in 1991. Howell, pictured with Jorgensen, confessed the killings to his former wife 10 years before he owned up to police. The dentist killed his wife, Lesley Howell, and his then lovers husband, Trevor Buchanan, 20 years ago before stage managing the deaths to look like a suicide pact. See page 4
PICTURE: Mark Jamieson

Age test for alleged killer

A TURKISH man accused of murdering two Co Down women in August will have a bone marrow test to determine his age. Recep Cetin, who is suspected of killing Newry holidaymakers Marion Graham and Kathy Dinsmore, appeared before a court in the city of Izmir yesterday, where a judge granted the prosecution request. Cetins lawyers claim he is 17, but the victims families believe he is older. See page 5

Oil tanker to be unloaded

A STRICKeN oil tanker anchored less than a mile off the north Down coast is to be unloaded at sea. The Genmar Companion, which is carrying a 54,000tonne load of vacuum gas oil, has been at the entrance to Belfast Lough close to Donaghadee for two weeks today. The 228m-long tanker had been off the north west coast of Donegal on December 16, en route from Rotterdam to New York, when the captain reported a crack in the hull. See page 3

IRA rejected secret hunger strike deal

BY GAVIN CORDON and SAM McBRIDE
newsdesk@newsletter.co.uk

Jobs axed at jeans firm

DOZeNS of Ulster jobs are in jeopardy and an unknown number already lost with retail chain D2 Jeans going into administration, it was reported yesterday. The move brought about 200 immediate redundancies and placed the future of hundreds more jobs around the UK in doubt when administrators closed 19 stores nine of them in Northern Ireland. The Ayrshire-based firm is the first notable post-Christmas retail casualty. See page 15

IRA leaders including Martin McGuinness rejected a secret British offer to end the hunger strikes in July 1981 before the

final six deaths, it can be revealed. Files released today under the 30-year rule show that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher authorised secret negotiations with the IRA. At the time, republicans portrayed Mrs Thatcher as unbend-

ing and their claim that she murdered the hunger strikers led to her becoming a hate figure to many nationalists. But the revelation that she secretly made an offer almost identical to that accepted by republicans months later which could have saved six prisoners

lives will heap fresh pressure on the leadership of Sinn Fein. As recently as 2009, Brendan Bik McFarland, the IRA leader in the prison, claimed that there was never any deal with the government. Turn to page 6

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