Man held in murder probe

GARDAÍ were last night continuing to question a man in connection with the 2007 murder of Paul Quinn, who was beaten to death after being lured to a remote farmyard 18 months ago.

Officers arrested the man in his 30s in the early hours of yesterday morning, in the seventeenth arrest either side of the border since the vicious attack on October 20, 2007.

The man, who is from Co Louth, is being held at Carrickmacross Garda Station in Co Monaghan under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act, where he can be held until Sunday morning.

Mr Quinn, 21, from Cullyhanna in Co Armagh, was beaten to death by a gang of men after being lured to a remote farm in Oram 18 months ago.

Although gardaí and PSNI officers have interviewed hundreds of people and taken statements, nobody has been charged with the vicious attack.

However, it is widely acknowledged that the death involved members of the provisional IRA in the area connected to border fuel smuggling.

It is understood that the order to abduct Mr Quinn and carry out the savage beating came from a meeting of high level provisional IRA figures in south Armagh in the weeks before his murder, which has been linked to an altercation between Mr Quinn and another individual in the area.

After luring him to a cattle shed belonging to the family of one of his friends, Mr Quinn was subjected to a savage beating by almost a dozen men.

According to sources, iron bars were used to break his legs and feet while wooden cudgels with nails or metal spikes were also used to beat his torso.