Loyalist killer Michael Stone is due to go on trial today charged with attempting to murder Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams and and Martin McGuinness.
Loyalist killer Michael Stone planned to slit the throats of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness inside the Northern Ireland Assembly Chamber when he stormed it in November 2006, a court was told today.
Stone (53), plotted to kill them on the day Mr McGuinness was designated as Deputy First Minister.
However his plan ended in failure when he was detained by security staff at the entrance to the building.
Stone faced a total of 14 charges, including attempting to murder Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness, when he went on trial at Belfast Crown Court today.
As well as the attempted murder charges, Stone is charged with possessing home-made explosives and an imitation gun with intent.
He is also charged with carrying a garrotte, three knives and an axe and assaulting staff members who trapped him in the revolving doors at Stormont.
Stone has since denied the charges claiming his attack was “performance art”.
But prosecuting council Charles Adair QC said that after being arrested by police, Stone said: “My intention was to walk into the debating chamber and look for where Adams, McGuinness and Sinn Féin were sitting. I would have lobbed several nail bombs to cause confusion.
“I planned to stab Adams and McGuinness and cut their throats.”
Mr Adair said Stone said he would use “close-quarter tactics” to slit the throats of Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness.
The lawyer said Stone admitted to counting on the fact that any personal protection weapons the Assembly members had would not have been carried in the debating chambers.
Mr Adair said Stone explained to police why he had planned the assassinations. He told them: “I see Adams and McGuinness as republican war criminals. Adams and McGuinness don’t deserve to be in a devolved government. It would be a bastardisation of democracy”.
After his detention and arrest Stone was taken by police from Stormont to the nearby Ulster hospital for a check-up because he had been complaining of chest pains and difficulty in breathing.
It was during the journey to the hospital and while in the hospital that he told them why he had launched the attack.
He claimed to have left the Ulster Defence Association on the day he was released from the Maze Prison under the Belfast Agreement early release scheme.
Stone gained notoriety in 1988 when he launched a gun and grenade attack on the republican funeral of three IRA members shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar.
Three people died and several more were injured before Stone was arrested by police as he fled Milltown Cemetery in West Belfast by running onto the M1 motorway.
Following his arrest at Stormont he was returned to prison to serve out the balance of his life sentence for the murders.
The case continues.