A Belfast estate agent has received substantial libel damages over unfounded claims in the Sunday World newspaper which may have linked him to a murdered loyalist paramilitary leader.
Philip Johnston, who ran a chain of estate agencies in east Belfast, also received an apology from the Sunday World.
The case relates to a story in the paper which included claims that an estate agent provided the keys of a safe house UDA leader Jim Gray used to hide a killer
Gray was later shot dead during a loyalist feud.
Philip Johnston’s lawyer said the Sunday World unreservedly accepts that such allegations were totally without foundation and should never have been published.
The damages paid by the paper were not disclosed but are understood to be a substantial five-figure sum.
Mr Johnston was arrested in 2005 as part of an inquiry into the affairs of the loyalist leader Jim Gray but the charges were later dropped by the PPS.
Mr Johnston was forced to sell his estate agency at the time of the criminal proceedings against him.
