DNA bid to solve terror murders

Advanced forensic tests are being used as part of a massive new inquiry into more than 20 loyalist and republican murders.

A team of detectives has been set up to re-examine unsolved killings going back nearly a decade.

DNA analysis is being applied to items recovered from the murder scenes in the Newtownabbey area, outside Belfast.

Detective Inspector James Templeton said the initiative was his number one priority.

He vowed: ‘‘We have to keep trying because if you only turn up one piece of gold 10 years on it’s worth it.’’

A total of 24 high-profile murders, nearly all sectarian, will be examined by the seven-strong team.

They include the 1997 killing of Raymond McCord, 22, whose head was smashed in by a concrete block at Ballyduff Quarry.

Although a Protestant, the Ulster Volunteer Force has been blamed for murdering him in a loyalist dispute.

Earlier that year the Rev David Templeton was clubbed to death by loyalist paramilitaries in the area in a punishment beating that went too far.

Detectives plan to review forensics, intelligence and witness statements in the hope of uncovering something that could lead them to the terrorists involved.

Highly sensitive DNA tests will be run on any clothing, footwear or scene of crime taping still stored.

Mr Templeton refused to reveal details of the examinations amid fears that criminals could be alerted to new police techniques.

Over the past four years all outstanding category A murders in Newtownabbey have been committed by loyalists.

Earlier this year Catholic postman Daniel McColgan, 20, was gunned down by an Ulster Defence Association gang in a shooting which sent a wave of revulsion through the community.

In July last year 18-year-old Gavin Brett was murdered by the same organisation in a drive-by killing as he chatted with friends close to his home at Glengormley, Co Antrim.

The UDA also shot dead another Catholic workman, Gary Moore, 30, on a building site at nearby Monkstown.

Other killers still at large include those who murdered 40-year-old Tommy English in front of his family on Halloween night 2000 and Mark Quail the next day at the height of a loyalist shooting war between the UVF and UDA.

The new methods are also being used as the team completes its inquiries into all of these assassinations.

Any exhibits lifted from the murder scenes in these cases will be carefully stored to ensure they can be re-examined in later years should further scientific breakthroughs be made.

Mr Templeton pledged that his team would re-check every last detail.

They began trawling through all evidence gathered in each of the 24 killings in April.

‘‘We are getting hits on finger prints from serious crimes five or six years ago,’’ he said.

‘‘Just one breakthrough would be worth it because the families of these people deserve everything we can possibly do for them.’’