Kyle Paisley pulls out of meeting with Eugene Reavey

Ian Paisley's son has pulled out of a meeting with a man his father accused of involvement in one of the worst atrocities of the Northern Ireland Troubles.

In 1999, the late firebrand preacher and Democratic Unionist leader Dr Paisley used parliamentary privilege in the House of Commons to claim Eugene Reavey helped plan the 1976 murders of 10 Protestant workmen at the village of Kingsmill, Co Armagh.

Days before the Kingsmill outrage, three of Mr Reavey's brothers were fatally wounded in a loyalist paramilitary gun attack at the family home at nearby Whitecross.

Kyle Paisley had agreed to talk with Mr Reavey, who for years has worked to clear his name, but withdrew the offer hours after news of the meeting became public.

While Ian Paisley never retracted his statement, a subsequent investigation by the police's Historical Enquiries Team made clear there was no evidence to link any member of the Reavey family to Kingsmill or paramilitarism.

Former chief constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary Sir Ronnie Flanagan also said there was no evidence linking Mr Reavey to the republican paramilitary gun attack.

Mr Reavey long campaigned for the former Stormont first minister to apologise, but he died in 2014 having never backtracked on his allegation.

News of the imminent meeting with Kyle Paisley, himself a Free Presbyterian minister, was broadcast on the BBC on Friday morning. Hours later Mr Paisley withdrew the offer.

"I want to express unequivocally my disappointment in the way this matter has been handled," he said.

"I feel that confidence has been broken on what had been a matter of private correspondence."

He added: "My only purpose in saying that I would meet Mr Reavey was to offer Christian sympathy on a personal level.

"News reports this morning may have left the impression that I was going to apologise for my father's statement in Parliament some years ago. I could not and would not.

"Because of the way in which this matter has been handled, there is now no possibility of my meeting with Eugene Reavey."