The widow of a Catholic doorman shot dead 25 years ago has told a coroner how his murder still haunts her.
Martina Dillon was speaking as an inquest into her husband Seamus Dillon (45) opened in Banbridge on Monday.
A father-of-three, Mr Dillon was shot by the LVF outside the Glengannon Hotel, near Dungannon, on December 27 1997, and was pronounced dead in the early hours of the next day.
Another man, Christy Cummings, was seriously injured during the attack and has been wheelchair bound ever since.
The gun attack took place just hours after the INLA shot dead former LVF leader Billy Wright in the H Blocks.
Collusion is suspected in the murder of Mr Dillon, who was a former republican prisoner.
In a statement, read out by barrister Frank O’Donoghue, Ms Dillon told coroner Richard Greene that at the time of her husband's death all their "dreams were coming true".
"That is until the 27th of December 1997, a night that still haunts me 25 years on.
"That was the night my life ended, a complete nightmare to receive that phone call.
"Never in a million years did I think that night when my Seamy was walking out the back door with a smile on his face that it would be the last time I would ever speak to him."
Ms Dillon revealed how she later received a call telling her to attend a hospital but was unaware of what had happened to her husband.
She said that when told by a doctor that he had been shot it was "like someone had stuck a knife in my heart".
"What I witnessed that night will stay with me for the rest of my life," she said.
"My Seamy was still living, I watched my husband die in front of my eyes.
"I prayed to God it wasn't real, I won't go into any more details but I am glad I was able to be there at the last."
Statements were also read from Mr Dillon's brothers Roger and Joseph, who described him as a "kind, caring and loving family man".
During Monday's hearing a coroner heard that the weapon used to kill Mr Dillon was also used by the UVF to gun down republican Sam Marshall in Lurgan in March 1990.
The coroner heard that among the issues that will fall for consideration is "the provenance of the murder weapon itself, its historic use and the opportunities, if any, that existed to seize the weapon at an earlier time or to detain those responsible for its use".
The court also heard that there "will be evidence that this weapon had been used previously and had been in the hands of loyalist terrorists in the Mid Ulster area for many years" including the murder of Mr Marshall.
A woman was later tried and acquitted of possession of the murder weapon.
