Loyalist godfather quizzed as deadly feud continues

A leading loyalist godfather was tonight being questioned by police in Belfast following a raid on a bar in the east of the city.

Jim Gray, who was shot in the face last month when a Loyalist paramilitary feud erupted, was arrested by police officers while the Bunch of Grapes bar in the east of the city was searched.

Mr Gray, the Ulster Defence Association’s East Belfast leader, was arrested as a teenager was also targeted in a gun attack on Ravenscroft Avenue off the Newtownards Road.

The 19-year-old was attacked by two men on a motorbike, sustaining a head injury as he got into his car.

On Friday night 41-year-old Geoffrey Thomas Gray from the Beersbridge Road was shot dead in Ravenhill Avenue in the south east of the city just before midnight.

He was shot in the chest by a lone gunman wearing a baseball cap and black clothing who fled the scene on foot.

The victim had moved to Belfast from Portadown within the last year.

The loyalist feud erupted last month when Loyalist Volunteer Force member Stephen Warnock was shot dead outside a school in Newtownards, Co Down.

Jim Gray was targeted in a revenge attack.

Meanwhile the Ulster Defence Association expelled one of its most famous figures, Johnny Adair, and his close associate John White from the organisation.