THIS is the last journey of
UVF child killer John Sin-
ton, the man who ordered
the revenge murders of two
teenage boys.
On Tuesday, former UVF
Tandragee commander John
Sinton was given a low key funer-
al in his Co. Armagh home town.
A chief undertaker dressed in top
hat and carrying an umbrella led
the cortege from the church service.
Sinton died last Friday, January 15,
after a lengthy battle against bowel
cancer.
“He suffered very badly in the end.
He was in terrible pain,” one source in
Tandragee told us.
Around 70 people turned up in
Tandragee for the service in the centre
of the town where 49-year-old Sinton
once ruled the roost for the UVF.

In attendance at the funeral
was Sinton’s girlfriend of more than a
decade Wendy Whittle.
Wendy Whittle gave Sinton an alibi
for the night of the horrific Tandragee
murders.
“It was very low key given who Sinton
had been in the UVF,” said a source.
“He hadn’t many friends in the UVF
in Mid-Ulster but he was still well
thought of with east Belfast UVF
although none of them turned up.”
FriendsOne death notice placed in the
Belfast Telelgraph read: “Deeply
regretted by Jim Lowry and all your
friends from the Cosy Bar, east Belfast.
The Lord is my Shepherd.”
One of those who bravely mingled
among the mourners was Paul McIlwaine,
the still grieving father of David
McIlwaine who was butchered to death
along with his friend Andrew Robb on the
orders of Sinton nearly a decade ago.
The teenagers were knifed to death,
had their throats slit and their bodies
dumped on a lonely country road out-
side Tandragee in February 2000.
“I didn’t go to his funeral to pay my
respects or to mourn his loss in any way,”
Mr McIlwaine told the Sunday World.
“I went there to see who would turn
up at his funeral. There was probably
between 50 and 70 people at it.
As the mourners headed
into the local church,
around 20 men headed
into a local shop for some
afternoon refreshments.
“I joined the queue in the
shop,” Mr McIlwaine said.
“Nobody said anything
to me but I did get a
few funny looks but I didn’t care.
I spent about two hours in Tandragee
that day and nobody said a word to
me.”
Steven Revels is currently serving
life for the brutal double murders with a
tariff of 30 years before he is eligible for
parole. His appeal against his conviction
and sentence will be heard this April.
Bizarrely, Burly John Sinton was nev-
er arrested or questioned by the RUC
or the PSNI even though he was the
UVF commander for Tandragee at the
time of the
killings.
He told police that 70
people would confirm
he was in Ballyshee
Orange Hall near
Tandragee on the
night murders and
didn’t leave until
between 5am and
5.30am.
However, when
the families of
Andrew Robb
and David
McIl w aine
received the
police papers,
only FIVE peo-
ple could put
him in the
hall, includ-
ing his mis-
tress Wendy
Whittle.
As Mr
McIl w aine
told us: “I am
no detective
but that does-
n’t sound like
a water tight
alibi to me.”
Eyewitnesses
also told police
that Sinton had
been seen in the pres-
ence of Andrew Robb and
David McIlwaine before
they were killed.
In a follow up search after the horrif-
ic murders, an RUC team found a New
York Yankee baseball cap at Moody
Road.
BelongedAdded Mr McIlwaine: “It is my
understanding that the cap belonged
to Sinton who bought it in America
and is not available in the U”K.
He is convinced Sinton was never
arrested because he was working for
Special Branch as an informant.
“Nobody has ever able to explain to
me how a known UVF man like John
Sinton was given security clearance
work in so many police stations,
including Gough Barracks, and his
company Ballymore Builders earn
£500,000 from these contracts.
“And nobody has ever been able to
explain how, as the UVF commander
in Tandragee, he was able to get a
legally held firearm.”
Meanwhile, police this week
smashed in the door of the former
home of Noel Dillon in Tandragee.
It followed complaints that Dillon’s
home at Montagu Street had been
flooded since the recent freezing tem-
peratures.
The house has remained boarded up
for the past five years since Dillon
committed suicide in 2005.
At the time of Noel Dillon’s death,
the property was owned by builder
John Sinton.
He was once married to dillons sis-
ter Amanda and her sister Alexia was
going out with Steven Revels at the
time of the murders in 2000.
Leaders shun
funeral of man
who ordered
teens’ killings