Loyalists want me dead, says UVF victim's father

Loyalist terrorists have launched a new attempt to murder the outspoken father of one of their victims, he claimed tonight.

Raymond McCord accused the Ulster Volunteer Force of targeting him in a bid to thwart a major investigation into allegations a paramilitary killing spree was covered up.

UVF assassination squads were sent out to shoot him at his mother’s house in the north of the city, he said.

“There were two motorbikes with two-men teams cruising around the Tiger’s Bay area looking for me on Tuesday,” Mr McCord claimed.

“A leading loyalist phoned me and told me to stay away for my own safety.”

Mr McCord has blamed the paramilitaries for bludgeoning his 22-year-old son, also Raymond, to death in 1997.

He claims a senior UVF commander in north Belfast ordered the killing to prevent questions being asked by the organisation’s leadership about a drugs shipment from the UK.

This man is a high-level special branch agent involved in up to a dozen murders where police investigations were blocked to protect him, it is alleged.

He is suspected of helping detectives uncover a loyalist arms dump and giving evidence on paramilitary colleagues later convicted of terrorist crimes.

Nuala O’Loan, Northern Ireland’s Police Ombudsman, has launched an inquiry into the allegations which is expected to take another year to complete.

Her investigators, who uncovered shocking evidence that police received warnings ahead of the Omagh bombing which killed 29 people, have made the case their top priority, sources said.

“These men hope if I’m shot Mrs O’Loan will stop, but they are wasting their time,” Mr McCord said.

“This report is going to be very revealing and embarrassing the UVF chief of staff has worked for the British government as a high level informer for over 20 years.”

Still accusing the police for not investigating his son’s death properly, Mr McCord said it would have been a waste of time to notify them about the latest alleged attempt on his life.

“The police have never done anything for me,” he said.

“But if these men want me let them come to my house. There’s four of them and we will go out onto the street and they can fight for their organisation.

“But don’t go around like rats with balaclavas and guns.”

David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party which is politically linked to the UVF, insisted he would be “shocked and hurt” if anyone in Belfast was murdered.

He added: “But I’m no longer going to answer questions about Raymond McCord. He has a fixation with the media, and the media has a fixation with him."