The North's most senior judge yesterday said a 24-year jail sentence imposed on loyalist killer Clifford McKeown was "safe."
Lord Chief Justice Brian Kerr said an appeal against the sentence launched by McKeown - who was convicted of murdering Catholic taxi driver Michael McGoldrick during the height of the Drumcree dispute in 1996 - was dismissed.
McKeown was given the 24-year sentence for the brutal murder of the Lurgan father-of-two at Belfast Crown Court in March 2003.
The trial judge, Mr Justice Weatherup, described the murder of Mr McGoldrick (31) as a "chilling execution" which was both "premeditated" and "professional". He was shot five times in the back of the head.
The evidence against Craigavon man McKeown centred on a confession made to freelance journalist Nick Martin-Clark in 1999 while he was serving an unrelated sentence in prison. Mr Martin-Clark told the trial that when asked who killed Mr McGoldrick, McKeown replied "you're looking at him".
Following the conviction, McKeown launched an appeal against his sentence on the grounds the trial judge should have excluded the evidence of Mr Martin-Clark.