07/06/2006

Second man remanded over loyalist shooting

A second man has today been charged with the attempted murder of leading loyalist Mark Haddock last Tuesday.

Ronald Trevor Bowe, 29, and from Mount Vernon Gardens has also been reported to the Public Prosecution Service for alleged membership of the UVF.

Mr Bowe replied "not guilty" when the charge was put to him today at Belfast Magistrates Court.

He was remanded in custody until next month.

On Monday, a 36-year-old man, also from the Mount Vernon area, was remanded in custody also charged with the attempted murder of Mr Haddock.

He will reappear in court via video-link on July 3.

Mark Haddock, 37 and originally from the Mount Vernon area of north Belfast, was shot in the Mossley area of the Doagh Road shortly before 3.30pm on May 30 and remains in a serious condition in hospital.

It has been reported that Mr Haddock may have been lured to the area, where he was subsequently ambushed and shot.

He was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, where he was treated for six gunshot wounds.

Loyalists are being blamed for carrying out the attack

Mr Haddock, who is suspected of being a senior member of the Ulster Volunteer Force, is currently on bail facing a charge of attempted murder.

He was accused of attempting to kill nightclub doorman Trevor Gowdy in Monkstown in December 2002.

Mr Gowdy was found unconscious in the Monkstown Estate. He had been severely beaten with an iron bar and a hatchet.

The trial began at Belfast Crown Court last year, but was stopped after Mr Gowdy broke down in the witness box and was later deemed medically unfit to continue. Earlier this month, Mr Gowdy was granted permission to testify from a secret location in England.

Haddock is also at the centre of an investigation by the Police Ombudsman's Office, whose officers are looking into claims of collusion linked to a string of murders.

(EF/SP)

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18 January 2006
Attempted murder case postponed until May
The trial of Belfast man Mark Haddock, who is accused of attacking and leaving for dead a former army boxing champ, has been adjourned until May 2. The Belfast Crown Court trial was adjourned today until the victim, Trevor Gowdy, is pronounced fit enough by doctors to give evidence.
22 June 2006
Judge revokes shot loyalist's bail
A leading loyalist, who was shot six times last month, has been ordered to return to prison after he is released from hospital. The judge at Belfast's Crown Court, today revoked Mark Haddock's bail, saying that when he was shot, he had made a "deliberate, significant and, flagrant breach of his bail conditions.