Jim Allister's Traditional Unionist Voice party has distanced itself from a petition organised by one of its members calling for the release of notorious loyalist killer Torrens Knight.

Co Londonderry businessman Trevor Collins has been campaigning for the UFF assassin to be freed after his early release licence was suspended in the wake of his conviction for assaulting two sisters in a Coleraine bar.

The TUV confirmed Mr Collins is a member but made clear that the party did not support his stance. However, a spokesman said there were no plans to expel him.

Knight, who was found guilty of 12 murders during the Troubles, including those of eight people in the infamous Greysteel massacre, was sentenced to four months for attacking the women.

However, he faces a much longer stay behind bars if the authorities decide to permanently revoke his licence and make him serve our the remainder of his life sentences.

As well as the killings in Greysteel's Rising Sun bar at Halloween in 1993, the paramilitary gunman was also convicted of the murders of four Catholic builders in the nearby town of Castlerock earlier that year.

He served only seven years and was freed in 2000 under the terms of the Good Friday peace agreement.

Mr Collins, from Garvagh, has been collecting signatures calling for Knight's release, claiming that he has changed his ways and does not deserve to spend any more years in jail. I did not agree with what happened in Greysteel or Castlerock, but from he was released I know this man has changed," he said.

But a TUV spokesman said his views did not represent the party's. "The stance of TUV is clear, convicted terrorists should never have been released under the Belfast Agreement."

The TUV has faced criticism from the SDLP and Sinn Fein since news of the petition emerged.