Notorious loyalist killer Torrens Knight will have to wait to discover his punishment for beating up two sisters inside a Coleraine bar after a planned sentencing hearing was adjourned.

The UFF assassin, who was convicted of 12 murders during the Troubles, including those of eight people in the infamous Greysteel massacre, has already had his early release licence suspended and been returned to prison following the guilty verdict in last month's assault trial.

The 40-year-old had been due to be brought from Maghaberry jail to Coleraine Magistrates Court on Friday morning to find our what additional sanctions he is to face for the aggravated assault and disorderly behaviour convictions.

However, the sentencing did not go ahead as scheduled and has now been put back to next Wednesday at Antrim court.

No reason was given for the postponement in court and Knight's legal representative was not in attendance.

The paramilitary gunman was a member of the loyalist gang that burst into the Rising Sun bar in the County Londonderry village of Greysteel at Halloween in 1993 and opened fire.

The killings are always associated with the chilling "trick or treat" phrase shouted by one of the masked men before they started shooting.

Knight, from Ashdale, Coleraine, was also convicted of the murders of four Catholic builders in the nearby town of Castlerock earlier that year.

Having only served seven years, he was released in 2000 as part of the terms of the Good Friday Peace Agreement. But last May he found himself facing the prospect of a return to jail after sisters Caroline Nicholl and Rosemary Sutherland accused him of attacking them inside the Blackthorn bar in Coleraine.

At his trial last month, district judge Austin Kennedy found him guilty of punching Ms Nicholl to the ground and kicking her before turning his fists on Ms Sutherland. Mr Kennedy rejected his claim that he acted in self defence and only "lashed out" after Ms Sutherland threw the first punch.