Terror group denies threatening murdered man's family

Loyalist terrorists today denied issuing death threats against the family of murdered Belfast paramilitary Alan McCullough.

The one-time close associate of jailed terror chief Johnny Adair was killed and dumped in a shallow grave by the Ulster Defence Association.

His brother Kenny said police had told him the organisation was now targeting him, his mother Barbara and four sisters because they co-operated with a massive hunt for the body.

But the paramilitary group claimed in a statement today that pledges had been made to the McCulloughs that their lives were not in danger.

It said: “The Ulster Defence Association had given full assurances prior to the funeral of their family member that under no circumstances was the family under any threat of violence or death.”

McCullough, 21, was buried yesterday – a fortnight after he was murdered by the UDA because of his alleged role in the assassination of paramilitary commander John Gregg.

Two senior Belfast loyalists, William “Mo” Courtney, 39, and Ihab Shoukri, 29, have since been charged with killing McCullough and membership of the UDA’s military wing, the Ulster Freedom Fighters. Both deny the charges.

Gregg was gunned down in February at the height of an internal power struggle that claimed four lives.

As Adair languished behind bars, members of Adair’s splinter C Company faction were driven out of their power base in west Belfast’s Lower Shankill estate.

McCullough, the unit’s military commander, was among the group who fled to Scotland and Lancashire.

He returned to Northern Ireland last month after apparently negotiating to have the death sentence against him lifted, but disappeared weeks later when two top UDA men called at his house.

The murder was a fresh tragedy for his mother, whose UDA leader husband William was shot dead by republicans 21 years ago.

Despite the claims by Kenny McCullough, the terror organisation insisted it did not plan to take its retaliation any further.

“The memory of William ’Buckie’ McCullough as a true loyalist still holds dear amongst the rank and file of the Ulster Defence Association,” its statement said.

Frank McCoubrey, a loyalist councillor and member of the UDA-linked Ulster Political Research Group, also claimed he had been given promises there would be no further attacks.

“I spoke to people within the organisation and told them I was disgusted by the so-called threat,” he said.

“They gave me a cast iron guarantee that under no circumstances has any threat been made or will any threat be issued against this family.”