UDA source says loyalists were responsible for crucifixion attack

A UDA source in South Belfast has said that loyalists were responsible for the beating and crucifixion of a 23-year-old man in the city on Saturday.

There had been speculation that republican vigilantes were responsible for the attack because the victim is Catholic and because a stolen BMW, linked to this incident, was found in a mainly nationalist area of West Belfast.

However, the source said that although the UDA had not instigated the attack, loyalists were responsible and that the attack was a response to car crime.

Harry McCartan, a father of one, was found nailed through his hands to wooden fencing in the mainly loyalist Seymour Hill area near Dunmurry. He had been beaten so badly that his father could only identify him through a tattoo.

Fireman sawed through the wooden posts and took Mr McCartan to hospital, where doctors removed the nails and treated him for multiple lacerations, broken legs, bruising and puncture wounds. He is still ill but in a stable condition in hospital.