UVF ‘seeking to destroy rival loyalist group’

THE Ulster Volunteer Force appears hell-bent on driving out the rival terror group the Loyalist Volunteer Force, Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey warned yesterday after the bloody feud claimed a third victim.

Following the murder of Stephen Paul in north Belfast on Saturday night, Mr Empey said the UVF, which has carried out all the murders, was not responding to requests to negotiate an end.

“This was another appalling murder,” the East Belfast Assembly member said. “But it has appeared for some time the UVF will not be budged. They see a certain parallel on what they are engaged in now and what the UDA [Ulster Defence Association] did with Johnny Adair’s faction in 2003. Their view is let’s get them out of the way.”