UDA chief murdered in loyalist feud

Fears are mounting that the bloodshed surrounding the UDA feud will spiral still further out of control after the organisation's commander in south Antrim was gunned down in Belfast at the weekend.

John Gregg, who had been sentenced in 1984 for a murder attempt on Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, died instantly when the taxi he was travelling in was ambushed by rival loyalist gunmen.

Forty-five-year-old Gregg, fellow UDA member Robert Carson and two other men – one of whom is believed to be Gregg's 18-year-old son – were returning from a Glasgow Rangers football match on Saturday evening.

The group had just left the ferry terminal in a taxi at around 10.15pm when they were intercepted by two cars at Nelson Street. Gunmen fired a number of shots at the car and Gregg was killed instantly. Robert Carson, 33, wounded in the attack later died later in hospital. The two other men escaped but are not believed to have been injured. The taxi driver is said to be seriously ill in hospital.

Police are currently questioning two men over the attack.

One of the cars used by the killers, a Mondeo, was later found abandoned in Gardiner Street in the lower Shankill area – the stronghold of Johnny Adair's C Company.

The UDA unit controlled by Gregg has been responsible for a number of murders in the north Belfast area, including that of Catholic 18-year-old father-of-one Daniel McColgan and Protestant schoolboy Gavin Brett.

Last weekend's events brings to four the number of people who have died as a result of the UDA feud.

Following the murders, Lord Maginnis of Drumglass called for the use of internment as a "legitimate and necessary provision" to reduce loyalist paramilitary activity. He said that the head of the UDA's C Company, Johnny Adair, had effectively been interned when he was returned to prison earlier this month.

“Ordinary members of the public are disgusted that government inaction facilitates the escalation of ‘ Mafia gun law’ that deprives young people in certain parts of Northern Ireland of the opportunity to break free from criminal pressures," he said.

Unionist Lagan Valley MP, Jeffrey Donaldson, said that members of the UDA who were released on licence as part of the God Friday Agreement, were "clearly in breach (of licence conditions) and should be returned to prison".

"These people who are involved in this are not in it to defend the people of the Shankill or anywhere else," he said.

"They are in it to make money out of crime and to bring heartache to the people who live in those areas and to exploit young people for their own ends."

DUP councillor for the Shankill area, Eric Smyth, said those involved in the feud were gangsters and the root cause of the violence was "greed".

He added: "The government must act. They know who the top boys are and they should be charged and put behind bars."

However, Mr Smyth said that "internment was not the answer".

(GMcG)