Convicted paramilitary killer Michael Stone was found guilty on Friday of trying to murder Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness at the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2006.
Stone was detained with an imitation firearm, nails, pipe bombs, knives and an axe trying to get into the building on the day two years ago that McGuinness was designated deputy first minister in the power-sharing government.
The 53-year-old is a loyalist who supports Northern Ireland remaining part of Britain, while Republicans Sinn Fein want the once-troubled province to become part of the Republic of Ireland.
Security staff detained him in the revolving doors of the Stormont Assembly on November 24 2006 as he tried to force his way inside, where members were meeting for the first time since a new agreement to share power was secured.
Stone killed three in a gun and grenade attack on the funeral of three Irish Republican Army (IRA) members shot dead by British special forces in Gilbraltar in 1988.
He was jailed for the killings but subsequently freed under the 1998 Good Friday peace accord.
During the trial for the November 2006 foiled attack he defended his actions by saying that they were performance art, adding: ”It’s a comic parody of my former self.
”I would rather be remembered as an eccentric artist that got it wrong in performance art than for my past, when I did some terrible things.” — AFP
