Trimble warns of risk of gang control in North

David Trimble has warned that the North is in danger of becoming a society controlled by gangsters unless the dominance of paramilitaries in some neighbourhoods is challenged.

Speaking after the publication of a British House of Commons committee report on paramilitary expulsions, the North's First Minister said it exposed the "barbaric practice" under which "at least 1,600 people have been forcibly relocated".

He added that to turn a blind eye to the situation would be a "gross betrayal" of the North's communities. The report called for the RUC's new Organised CrimeTask Force to tackle the problem.