Red Hand Commando boss Winston ‘Winky’ Rea being charged with two sectarian murders

‘WINKIE’ Rea, the leader of the Red Hand Commando, has been charged by ‘Waking The Dead’ detecwith two counts of murder dating back over two decades ago.

The 65-year-old will appear in Belfast Magistrates Court on Monday to be charged with the murders of John Devine in 1989 and John O’Hara in 1991.

John Devine, 37, was shot dead at his home on Fallswater Street in west Belfast on July 23, 1989.

He was sitting in his living room with his 13-year-old son when three men forced their way in and shot him.

John O’Hara, 41, was murdered on Dunluce Avenue in south Belfast on April 17, 1991.

He was working as a taxi driver and had gone to pick up a passenger at 22.15 pm when he was approached by two masked men who fired several shots at the car, fatally injuring him.

Officers from the PSNI’s Legacy Investigation Branch arrested Mr Rea on Tuesday.

Detectives were later granted a further 80 hours to question him

LIB announced last September that it would re-examine the murders after they gained access to tape interviews Winston Churchill Rea gave the Boston College’s ‘Belfast Project’.

He was arrested in March 1999 on the morning of his daughter’s wedding over the murder of fellow RHC member Frankie Curry.