The Stormont Assembly has unanimously passed a motion calling for an urgent review of the conviction of RUC man John Torney, who was found guilty of murdering his entire family in 1994.

John Torney (40) was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1996 for shooting his wife, Linda (33), his son, John (13), and daughter, Emma (11). They were each killed by a single bullet to the head at their home in Lomond Heights, Cookstown, Co Tyrone, in September 1994.

Torney suffered a fatal heart attack at Maghaberry Prison near Lisburn, Co Antrim, in 2005, while trying to appeal his conviction. He has always denied the murders and claimed his son had shot his mother and sister before turning his father's RUC issue revolver on himself.

He claimed John Jr carried out the murders before turning the gun on himself because Emma was about to tell their parents he had sexually abused her.

At the original trial, two of Emma Torney's school friends gave evidence that Emma had said she was being abused by her brother. But during the trial, the judge, Lord Justice Carswell, was cautious about these allegations.

He said the truthfulness of the allegations was "hearsay" and could not be tested. The prosecution claimed Torney had become "totally infatuated" with Ailsa Millar, a colleague at Magherafelt RUC station, and that he planned to use the £80,000 he would get from his wife's death to buy a house to be near her home at Ballymena, Co Antrim.

But the children's school principal has come forward claiming he has information he's willing to provide to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) about the sexual relationship between the siblings.

The witness claims a senior police officer in the initial investigation told him there was evidence of a sexual nature between the two children at the murder scene which suggested the boy had assaulted his sister.

Another new witness has also come forward who is also willing to give evidence about the alleged sexual abuse of Emma by her brother.

In light of this, the SDLP tabled a motion two-and-a-half weeks ago calling for the CCRC to review the case.

Torney's brother Sam and his wife Hilary said this is the latest step forward in their quest to clear his name. "We want justice for John because we know he was innocent," Hilary Torney told the Sunday Tribune. "We'll keep going until we clear his name."