Loyalist murder 'as barbaric as Shankill butchers'
The murder of a top loyalist paramilitary was as barbaric as anything inflicted by the notorious Shankill Butchers gang 30 years ago, a Belfast inquest heard today.
Geordie Legge, 37, who was found with his throat cut and multiple stab wounds, is believed to have been killed in a bar owned by a close associate Jim Gray, who was shot dead in the city last October, it was claimed.
Legge’s body was found dumped at Carryduff on the eastern outskirts of Belfast in January 2001. At the time he was a senior member of the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) who had fallen out with the organisation’s so-called brigadiers.
Gray, another leader, owned the Bunch of Grapes pub where Legge was believed to have been murdered, Detective Inspector Michael McErlane told senior coroner John Leckey.
Gray was one of five men later questioned about the murder, but never charged.
The Shankill Butchers was a ruthless gang of loyalists who in the mid-70s toured the streets of north and west Belfast, kidnapping innocent Catholics walking home late at night and driving them off to be tortured and stabbed with butchers’ knives.
Legge was a business partner of Gray, who headed an extensive racketeering empire, and today’s inquest heard how the killers disposed of evidence of the murder by removing a carpet from Gray’s pub, which police believe would have been covered in blood.
Mr Leckey, who heard the victim’s throat had been slit with a six inch knife, said it was the worst case he had seen since the Shankill Butchers’ reign of terror during the Troubles.
He said: “I have been acting as Coroner long enough to remember the Shankill Butchers and looking at this brings back memories of how their victims were treated.
“It really is dreadful, dreadful injuries,” Mr Leckey said. “It’s a sobering thought that the person or persons responsible for this horrific murder are still walking the streets.”
Mr Leckey said: "The deceased had loyalist paramilitary connections and was a senior figure in the UFF… It is believed that loyalist paramilitaries within the UFF were responsible for his death.
“Police are satisfied hat he was murdered in the Bunch of Grapes… there’s been no claim of responsibility.”
Mr Leckey said the fact the victim was stabbed 15 times in the back and had his throat cut indicated a level of personal animosity.
During the hearing, he asked police why Mr Legge had not been shot.
Detective Inspector McErlane explained: “There was a reluctance by many organisations at that time to use firearms to try to demonstrate their move towards accepting a peace process where weapons were no longer needed.
“There is a deep-seated grudge or difference between paramilitaries within paramilitary organisations.”
The father-of-three’s mother, Margaret, told the coroner’s court she blamed Gray for the killing.
"I know they had had a few rows… I heard him threatening to burn us out of the flat," she said, adding her son had reluctantly gone to Gray’s bar on the night he was killed after being summoned o the telephone.
Mrs Legge confirmed her son had been stabbed before in May 2000 and had taken a long time to recover.
The victim was dumped on the Clontonacally Road in Carryduff and was found the next day.
Police later raided the Bunch of Grapes and confiscated two knives, neither yielding any forensic evidence.
DI McErlane said: “The case is one of many which is treated as an unsolved murder and will be reviewed in due course.
“Whether that is done by one of the existing review teams or whether it’s done by some other part of the police organisation I am not sure.
“I don’t think that decision has yet been made. The case will remain open. The case is definitely not closed.”
He added the deceased was a “senior figure” within the UFF.
Mr Legge’s blood was found on the street outside the Bunch of Grapes and fibres from a carpet discovered in the target’s hair.
A short time later the bar was set alight with petrol in an apparent attempt to destroy evidence.
Forensic pathologist Allistair Bentley said the stabbing would have killed Mr Legge almost instantly and added there was no evidence of any attempt to defend himself.
