EXCLUSIVE | 

Crazed knife-killer jailed for stabbing fiancée nearly 50 times is back on the streets

Andy Robinson spent 20 years behind bars for the frenzied attack on the mother of his baby daughter two days before Christmas

Today at 16:56

A crazed loyalist knife-killer – jailed for life for stabbing his fiancée nearly 50 times – is back on the streets, the Sunday World can reveal.

Andy Robinson – a former member of the UDA’s notorious ‘Hallion Battalion’ – slit the throat of 22-year-old Julie-Anne Osborne so severely he almost severed her spinal cord.

He spent 20 years behind bars for the frenzied attack on the mother of his baby daughter two days before Christmas in 2001.

Now 45, Robinson is free and living in a respectable area in east Belfast, where many neighbours are unaware of his horrific past.

But this week the cut-throat killer was confronted on the street by a cousin of the young woman he had murdered.

“Do you remember me, Robinson?” asked Jennifer Osborne, who last saw her cousin’s killer on the day he was sent to jail for life.

She told the Sunday World yesterday: “I spat on him that day and I knew then I’d never forget his evil face.”

On December 9, 2002 at Belfast Crown Court, a jury found Robinson guilty of the brutal murder of Julie-Anne two years earlier.

Julie-Anne was the mother of Robinson’s 19-month-old baby daughter.

Earlier, the jury heard how the Shankill Road psycho had broken into his victim’s home as she slept in an upstairs bedroom.

And he repeatedly plunged a large knife into her diminutive frame, concentrating on her neck and upper body. Robinson stabbed Julie-Anne so severely he almost severed her spinal cord and he even managed to stab himself in the thigh.

Mr Justice Nicholson sent Robinson to jail for life, with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 20 years behind bars.

Three years ago, the Sunday World revealed how the former UDA man was preparing for life on the outside.

We discovered Robinson had been moved out of HMP Maghaberry to a pre-release facility at Landscape Way, adjacent to the old Belfast Prison on Crumlin Road.

And we later learned he was released on licence last February.

Robinson rarely leaves the east Belfast home he shares with his girlfriend, spending his time drinking on the patio.

But our inquiries revealed that the killer travels into Belfast city centre once a week for a meeting with his probation officer.

And it was when he set out on one of these trips that he was challenged by a relative of his deceased fiancée as he waited for a bus on the Woodstock Road.

Jennifer Osborne told the Sunday World yesterday that her mind was fully focused on her murdered cousin when she confronted Robinson.

Jennifer said: “I hadn’t seen Andy Robinson since the day when he was sent to jail for life for killing Julie-Anne.

“But when I saw him staggering about at the bus stop, I recognised him right away. He was clearly drunk and I was determined to get him on film to let everyone know this evil man is back on the streets and living in this community.

“I switched on my phone and walked straight up to him saying: ‘Hey Robinson, we meet again. Do you remember me? He looked shocked and just said, ‘What?’.

“He was drinking from an alcopops can and he was wearing two Covid masks around his neck. As soon as he recognised me, he pulled up a mask to cover his face and eyes.

“He then looked back to see if his bus was coming.”

She added: “Big brave Andy Robinson couldn’t get onto the bus quick enough.”

Jennifer fondly remembers her cousin Julie-Anne as a lovely young woman who adored her baby daughter.

“It’s just a pity she met a man like Andy Robinson. He is evil and I want everyone to know it,” said Jennifer.

As per Judge Nicholson’s recommendation, Robinson spent a minimum of 20 years behind bars before being released last February.

But during the final months of his sentence, when he was based in the secure unit on Crumlin Road, he was living only a few hundred metres from the house where he committed a crime which shocked hardened murder squad detectives.

On April 21, 1999, Julie-Anne gave birth to a baby girl. And three months later, she moved into a new Housing Executive home along with her fiancé Robinson at Shankill Terrace.

Robinson was a member of the UDA’s notorious ‘Hallion Battalion’ based in the lower Shankill.

And as a teenager, he had been photographed during the Drumcree riots outside Portadown, with UDA ‘Brigadier’ Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair and UFF gunman Gary ‘Smickers’ Smith, who was recently convicted in Scotland of child sex crimes.

But during their time together, Robinson had repeatedly used violence against Julie-Anne.

And on one occasion, a senior member of the UDA in west Belfast visited the couple’s home, where Robinson was warned in no uncertain terms to show respect to his partner.

Two days before Christmas 2000, he punched Julie-Anne so severely he caused her eye to close over.

Later that day, she gave Robinson his ring back and ordered him to leave their home and never return.

She arranged for a relative to look after her baby while she went back to bed to recover.

But in the early hours of the following morning, Robinson returned and attacked Julie-Anne with a knife as she slept.

At his trial for murder two years later, Professor of Forensic Medicine Jack Crane told the judge he found 42 stab wounds on Julie-Anne’s body.

When Robinson was arrested by police investigating the murder, he denied all knowledge of the crime.

But when a detective spotted blood seeping through the Shankill man’s jeans, he immediately told Robinson: “This interview is over. I’m arresting you for the murder of Julie-Anne Osborne.”