I'LL DEFY MY DEATH SENTENCE FOR PEACE

A PROTESTANT man sentenced to death by Loyalist gunmen for loving a Catholic girl has returned to Belfast to test the terrorists' pledge of peace.

Noel Phillips, from the Shankill Road, fled to Manchester five years ago after para- militaries hunted him down and tried to kill him. This week he defiantly jetted back into Belfast - and challenged the gunmen to release him from his prison lifestyle and show that they are serious about peace.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Mirror, Noel tells how he was sentenced to certain death if he stayed in Ulster.

He faced death when a terrorist, allegedly from the Ulster Volunteer Force, pointed a gun at his head and pulled the trigger - but it miraculously jammed. He hit the man and fled... to England.

Last night Noel told the terrorists: "You now have a real chance for peace, a chance to let the prisoners out. So why not give people in exile the chance of real peace and freedom of movement?

"The last five years have been a nightmare. I have had no work, no social life, no family. I think of my kids every day and night. I blame the paramilitaries

for getting involved in a domestic situation which had nothing to do with politics."

Hefty ex-bouncer Noel has not been able to see his children and missed out on the birth of his baby daughter just six weeks after he fled for his life.

He is heartbroken he did not get the chance to say goodbye to his father John who died of cancer two years ago.

Noel said: "In about 1991 I was living with a girl in the Shankill. We had two boys but the relationship started falling apart.

"I ended up working in a pub in Belfast city centre and I met a Catholic girl from Springfield Road. We started a relationship.

"One day two men came to me and said they were Loyalist paramilitaries. They told me to stay away from my ex-girlfriend and my children, because I was a 'Taig lover'.

"I moved to Castlereagh. A friend warned me that Loyalist paramilitaries were out looking for me. I moved again, to Newry.

"Six weeks later four men broke into the house when I was out. I went on the run around Ulster - but continued to see my Catholic girlfriend.

"One night we went to the Plaza Hotel in Belfast. I dropped her off at work afterwards and as I made my way home I saw I was being followed by a man.

"I took a different route and bought some cans of beer. The guy followed me everywhere.

"Two men wearing parka coats stepped out in front of me. One of them produced a hand gun and put it against my temple. I heard the gun click. It had jammed. I grabbed the bag of beer, swung it around and hit him in the face.

"I legged it and jumped in front of an oncoming van. He stopped and I jumped in."

Soon afterwards Noel was contacted by the police at a safe house he was living in and advised to leave the country.

"I didn't want to go but my family said they would rather have me living in Engand than buried in Ireland. I flew out on 13 February 1993."

From that day, Noel was a virtual prisoner in a Manchester flat. He contracted post traumatic stress disorder and grew paranoid and lonely.

"Today I'm a nervous wreck," he said. "I still get flashbacks. I have no close friends. I have two boys aged 15 and 17 on the Shankill, and a daughter of five on the Springfield Road. I miss them all.

"I last saw my daughter when she was 18 months old. Her mother has settled with someone else. I have lost everything."

No group takes responsibility for the death threat against Noel, but he has been told that it comes from the UVF. David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party, which has links with the UVF, said: "He came to me in 1994 and I made representation on his behalf. I don't think there's any difficulty in him coming back."

Noel is back in Belfast but feels he is taking his life into his hands. He has visited his father's grave - but not seen his children. He said: "There are lots of people like me, Catholic and Protestant. We have been forgotten in the peace process."

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