On the morning he launched his infamous murder bid at Stormont, Michael Stone posted a handwritten letter to the Belfast Telegraph outlining his plans.

In the astonishing five-page letter, dated the morning of his unsuccessful attempt to storm Government buildings, Stone declared that his “primary targets” were Gerry Adams and Martin “the fisherman” McGuinness.

The letter to the Belfast Telegraph, and a second almost identical letter to the London Evening Standard, were to become key parts of the prosecution case and were referred to by Mr Justice Deeny as he gave his guilty judgement at Belfast Crown Court yesterday.

In the letter, 53-year-old Stone, who hobbled into court yesterday with the aid of a single crutch, wrote that following his planned attack he would be in one of two positions — in police custody “with the events surrounding my arrest ensuring that I spend the rest of my natural life in prison” or “that I am deceased”.

He wrote that he would carry a replica handgun to “bluff my way past two security guards stationed at a desk behind a walk-through metal detector”.

He also claimed he would carry one large “flash bang device”, seven nail bombs, three knives, an axe, a garrotte and a body armour vest.

The former UDA killer claimed that he w ould detonate the “flash bang device” in the Great Hall “to create panic and confusion as I move to my left and along the corridor towards the debating chamber and the two targets”.

He said that if the two Sinn Fein leaders were not in the debating chamber, he would move to the party's offices on the first floor of Stormont and would take “appropriate action to deter” security staff if they tried to disarm him.

The letter described in detail the location of the Sinn Fein office and claimed there was an “offensive tricolour” on the inside of the office window.

Also in the letter Stone claimed he was taking action because he believed there would be a united Ireland within 20 years.

The letter continued: “The latter in all probability as I don't intend withdrawing from my mission as I did on the 16th of March 1988, when as now a freelance-dissident loyalist paramilitary I set out to assassinate the Irish Republican war criminals Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.

“I pen these details to ensure that there is no confusion as to the objective of my mission.”

Stone concluded his letter by stating: “I'm outgunned but I wouldn't have it any other way”, and signed the letter using his nickname Flint.