Taxpayers may be forced to buy exiled loyalist's home
Politicians in the North have expressed concern at reports that British taxpayers' money may be used to buy the former home of exiled loyalist John White.
Mr White, a convicted double-murderer, was expelled from the North earlier this year at the height of the internal feud between the UDA inner council and the organisation's notorious west Belfast commander, Johnny Adair.
Under a British government scheme, the North's Housing Executive is obliged to buy the home of anybody whose life has been threatened.
Mr White claims that he got the money for his £500,000 home outside Carrickfergus in Co Antrim from selling handicrafts made during his 14 years in jail, but he is believed to have been involved in drug-dealing and prostitution.
The Democratic Unionist Party's local councillor, David Hilditch, said the house should be seized by the new Assets Recovery Agency instead of being bought by the Housing Executive with public money.
