Gregg murder: Two questioned
Two men were today being questioned about the murder of top loyalist John Gregg.
Gregg and another UDA member, Robert Carson, were gunned down in the docks area of Belfast by members of a rival faction as they returned from a Glasgow Rangers football match match at the weekend.
The security forces are preparing for a wave of revenge attacks as members of the UDA’s inner council meet within the next few days to discuss their response.
Loyalist sources are blaming the double murder on member’s of Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair’s “C” Company.
They claim that members of Adair’s grouping were on the same ferry as Gregg and his companions as they returned home from Stranraer.
“There were people from the lower Shankill on the boat. Somebody on board would have known exactly what time he came off,” said a source.
The killing of Gregg, 45, the UDA’s South East Antrim commander and a member of the inner council, has sparked fears of a bloodbath among rival loyalist groupings.
The two deaths have brought to four the number of people killed in the latest feud, which was sparked off when the inner council expelled Adair and his close associate, John White, in September.
Two other men, including the taxi driver, were wounded in the ambush which took place as the cab stopped at traffic lights at the junction of Nelson Street and Great George’s Street at 10.15pm on Saturday.
The driver of the taxi remained in a critical condition in hospital, while the other man’s injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.
Northern Ireland security minister Jane Kennedy feared the murders could spark a fresh round of tit-for-tat killings.
She said: “Once again we see so-called loyalists bringing violence to the streets of Belfast.
“The people of Northern Ireland are sick of bracing themselves for yet another spat of brutal killings and shootings amongst criminals.
“The security forces will continue to do everything to put those involved behind bars where they belong.”
Ulster Unionist Party security spokesman in the British House of Lords, Ken Maginnis, said he believed internment was the only solution to the “Mafia gun law” of the paramilitaries.
“Internment is a legitimate and necessary provision to be used by the administration to deal with paramilitary activity – whether the objective of that activity is to undermine democratic institutions or to provide a base for organised crime,” he said.
