McCullough murder: UDA boss in hiding
The Ulster Defence Association commander suspected of sanctioning the murder of rogue loyalist Alan McCullough has gone into hiding, it emerged tonight.
As detectives questioned another man about the killing which was linked to a brutal feud, sources disclosed the UDA boss has fled from his Belfast home.
He was one of two senior UDA figures who took McCullough from his Lower Shankill home in the west of the city on the night he vanished more than a week ago.
The victim’s body was only discovered in a shallow grave on the outskirts of Belfast yesterday following a massive police search operation.
The UDA-affiliated Ulster Freedom Fighters admitted murdering McCullough, a leading member of jailed terror boss Johnny Adair’s notorious C Company unit, because of his alleged role in the assassination of rival paramilitary chief John “Grug” Gregg.
McCullough’s family pleaded for no retaliation, but loyalist women in the Lower Shankill held a street protest against the killing.
“Nearly every wee lad in there has been in C Company at some stage and these mothers want the UDA to know they won’t let them come in and take them,” one source said.
“But the heat has been turned up now and the man behind Alan’s murder cleared out yesterday.
“He knows the police are desperate to get him now they have a body. He was with Alan when he was last seen.”
McCullough’s brother, Kenny, tonight claimed the murderers were known to loyalists in the area and police.
But he stressed: “Anybody else getting killed is not going to bring my brother back.”
The murder has re-opened old scars for the family. The dead man’s father, UDA leader William McCullough, was shot dead by republicans in 1981.
“My brother has gone and I don’t want another family to go through what we have gone through,” Kenny McCullough said.
“My mother went through this 22 years ago when my father was killed and it’s just coming back on her two-fold.”
Earlier supporters of Adair disputed the claims of former comrades that McCullough was murdered because of his role in the feud which has now claimed five lives.
He had fled to Scotland in February with Adair’s wife Gina, their close associate John White and other supporters after the UDA leadership drove them out of their Lower Shankill powerbase.
McCullough only returned to Northern Ireland a fortnight before he disappeared after believing he had negotiated a lifting of the death threat against him.
But the UFF linked McCullough to the murders of Gregg, the UDA’s South Antrim Brigadier, in February and Jonathan Stewart at Christmas.
Gregg, a bitter rival of Adair’s, died in a hail of bullets near Belfast docks along with fellow UDA member Robert Carson as they returned from a Glasgow Rangers match.
Members of Adair’s former C Company said they wanted to “set the record straight” about McCullough and the other murders.
The group denied the 21-year-old had anything to do with the murders of Stewart and Gregg and they pointed at an individual who they said had knowledge of both killings.
The statement read: “Alan McCullough played no part in the murder of Jonathan Stewart at a party in the Oldpark area at Christmas 2002.
“A senior loyalist from the Shankill was at that time military commander for C Company and would have known about any attack carried out during this time.
“Secondly Alan McCullough had no knowledge of nor played any part in the execution of loyalist John “Grug” Gregg. Both the UDA leadership and the security forces know who was responsible for the execution of John Gregg.
“The identity of the three men who led Alan McCullough away from his home 10 days ago is widely known on the Shankill.”
