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PSNI footage shows moment guns found in loyalist's car boot

Chris Thornton and Mandy McAuley
BBC NI Spotlight
PSNI A mug shot of Irvine. It is a head and shoulders image, he is wearing a grey sweatshirt and has short, balding brown hair. He is looking directly down the lends of the camera.PSNI
Winston Irvine received a two-and-a-half year sentence

Video footage, showing the moment guns and ammunition were found in loyalist community worker Winston Irvine's car, has been released by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Edited extracts from police body-worn video recording the arrests of Irvine and Larne man Robin Workman were released to the BBC, but with the sound almost entirely removed.

A PSNI transcript of the original video indicates officers knew they were looking for weapons when they pulled over Irvine in Belfast in 2022.

The PSNI said the sound on the video had been removed to prevent the identification of any of the police officers.

PSNI footage showing the moment guns and ammunition were found in Winston Irvine’s car

Irvine, 49, was jailed in May for after admitting firearms offences, including possession of handguns and ammunition.

The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) is appealing his two and a half year sentence which it said was "unduly lenient" and should be extended.

Irvine was arrested in June 2022, after police observed the firearms being transferred to his car by Workman, who was also subsequently jailed.

Undercover surveillance officers were part of the operation that led to their arrests, but the newly released videos show both men were later stopped in their vehicles by uniformed officers.

PSNI On overhead view inside a yellow shopping bag with an orange handle. Inside that bag is another white bag which is unzipped. Inside it you can see a black gun lying on it's side. On the bottom left hand side of the picture there is yellow text which gives the date the footage was taken - the 8th of June 2022 - and the time - 10:25 amPSNI
Footage from the body-worn camera showed officers discovered a gun inside a bag

According to the PSNI transcript of Irvine's arrest in west Belfast, an officer told Irvine they were about to search his vehicle for "munitions and wireless apparatus", an indication he was being stopped under the terms of the Justice and Security Act.

"Have you anything in here that shouldn't be?," the officer asked.

According to the transcript, Irvine replied: "In the boot there is, yes…there's a bag...I don't know what's in it."

The officer said: "OK, where did you get that?"

Irvine replied that he did not want to say.

Irvine and Workman, who was jailed for five years, both failed to explain why the weapons were being transported.

PSNI You can see two red brick buildings, one is a home, then other is a shop with Day Today signage on the side. A union flag can be seen flying in the background. In the foreground, a man - Winston Irvine, it stood beside a car. Beside him is a police officer - the PSNI has blurred his identity. On the bottom left hand side of the picture there is yellow text which gives the date the footage was taken - the 8th of June 2022 - and the time - 9:35 amPSNI

Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) paraphernalia was found in both their homes, but the judge in the case concluded there was "no evidence of a direct terrorist connection to these firearms".

Irvine was given less than the statutory minimum sentence because of his peace and charity work.

He is due to be released in 2026 unless the PPS appeal is successful.

The PSNI does not normally release body-worn video but agreed to do so after BBC NI's Spotlight team made the request to Belfast Crown Court in late May, during the making of Caught: Guns In The Boot, which investigated Irvine's arrest and the implications it could have for the potential disbandment of the UVF.

What is the UVF?

The Ulster Volunteer Force murdered more than 500 people during the Troubles.

It was formed in 1966 and involved in various atrocities including the bombing of McGurk's Bar in Belfast, the sectarian killings of the Shankill Butchers and the Loughinisland massacre.

In recent years, it has been linked to serious criminality, including drug dealing.

Who is Winston Irvine?

Winston Irvine first came to public prominence as a spokesman for the Progressive Unionist Party, which was linked to the UVF throughout the peace process.

Spotlight reported in 2013 that a number of sources alleged Irvine was a UVF commander, but he said that was "preposterous".

When Irvine was arrested in June 2022, he had been employed as a community worker by the Belfast organisation Intercomm for 10 years.

The group suspended him when he was arrested.

After he was jailed in May, Irvine chose to serve his sentence on a segregated loyalist wing of HMP Maghaberry.

Prior to his arrest he was described as an "interlocutor" working with the Loyalist Communities Council on transforming the UVF into a peaceful organisation.