Muriel Gibson

Muriel Gibson (born 29 September 1949) is a leading Northern Irish loyalist who was a member of the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). The organisation was founded in 1996 by Billy Wright. She was acquitted of murdering a Catholic council worker, Adrian Lamph, in 1998, but convicted in January 2007 and sentenced to eight years imprisonment for destroying evidence following the 1998 murder, impeding the arrest and prosecution of his killers, and LVF membership. She was also found guilty of withholding information regarding a shooting, possession of firearms, detonators and pipe bombs.

Her co-accused, LVF leader Jim Fulton, was convicted of directing the 1999 murder of Elizabeth O'Neill, along with a series of other offences, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Their trial, which lasted from September 2005 until December 2006, was the longest in the legal history of Northern Ireland. Together they have two sons, Mahatma and Oddysseus; and three daughters, Rain, Talutha and Aisha. Gibson and Landry divorced around 1999 or 2000. Her sons live with her ex-husband in California.

Gibson was charged with possession of a controlled drug in 1969 at Bow Street Magistrates' Court when she was 19 years old. In 1990, she was imprisoned for a year in the United States for possession of illegal drugs. Upon her release in 1991, she returned to Northern Ireland.

Loyalist Volunteer Force Gibson became involved in loyalist paramilitary activities in December 1991, Expelled from the UVF and threatened with execution, Wright defied the Belfast leadership and took most of the officially-disbanded Portadown unit with him, including brothers Mark "Swinger" Fulton and Jim Fulton. Gibson also became a member of the new loyalist paramilitary organisation. In June 1997 the LVF was proscribed by the British Government and six months later, Wright was shot dead at the Maze Prison by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA); Gibson acted as one of Wright's pallbearers at his funeral. Following Wright's assassination, Mark Fulton took over as the LVF's leader.

On 21 April 1998, 29-year-old Catholic council worker, Adrian Lamph was killed outside Fair Green Amenity Centre in Portadown. He was shot in the head at close range by an LVF gunman on a mountain bike wearing a red scarf over his face. The shot allegedly hit Lamph between the eyes and blew his head off. Her taped conversations with the undercover police officers in England were presented at court. Although Gibson was acquitted of Lamph's murder, she was convicted of destroying evidence, and impeding the arrest and prosecution of his killers. She was also convicted of LVF membership, withholding information about a shooting, and possession of firearms, detonators and pipe bombs. The pipe bombs were used at the 1998 Drumcree standoff and the detonators were to be used in a proposed bombing campaign in the Republic of Ireland in 1997. She was sentenced by Mr. Justice Harte in January 2007 to eight years imprisonment.