Shankill UDA isolate Adair

Loyalists on the Shankill Road have further isolated former UDA leader, Johnny Adair, by issuing a statement distancing themselves from him.

The Loyalist Volunteer Force is expected to follow suit shortly, leaving Adair and his close associates on their own without support.

After the double murder of the UDA's southeast Antrim commander, John Gregg, and another UDA man on Saturday, the UDA's leadership warned others to make up their minds what side they were on.

In a statement they said they no longer recognised the leadership of Adair's so-called "C" Company.

Senior loyalist sources said that hours before Gregg was murdered, Adair's group withdrew an offer to meet other leaders to try to end the feud and that this was on Adair's personal orders issued from inside jail.