PSNI mount search for clues about loyalist murder

Police investigating the murder of a Belfast loyalist earlier this year have begun a search of a quarry north of the city in an effort to uncover further clues to the killing.

21-year-old Alan McCullough, a close associate of deposed UDA commander Johnny Adair, was shot dead earlier this year as part of a feud between the mainstream UDA and members still loyal to Adair.

He had originally fled the North with several other west Belfast loyalists at the height of the feud.

However, he did a deal with the UDA whereby he was allowed back to Belfast in return for providing details of Gina Adair’s new address in the English city of Bolton and taking part in a gun attack on the house.

McCullough returned to the North in May believing his life was no longer under threat, but he was abducted by two UDA men two weeks later and his body was found in a shallow grave on the outskirts of north Belfast on June 5.

Two men have since been charged with his murder and are currently in prison awaiting trial.