Man held over Haddock shooting

A man was arrested today by police investigating the attempted murder of top loyalist paramilitary Mark Haddock.

Police confirmed he was held as part of an ongoing search operation.

It is understood he was detained in the greater Belfast area, and sources in the north of the city claimed he was a former associate of the man who survived an assassination attempt on the outskirts of the city on Tuesday.

Haddock, 36, was hit six times when he was ambushed getting out of his car at Doagh, but is off the critically ill.

He is believed to have been shot by the Ulster Volunteer Force and sources claimed today that the man who ordered the shooting has fled the area where he was once based.

Haddock from Mount Vernon, north Belfast, was on bail awaiting a judge’s verdict in a Crown Court trial in which he was accused of the attempted murder of a nightclub doorman who was attacked on the Monkstown estate, Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, in December 2002.

He is also at the centre of a massive investigation by the Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan whose officers are looking into claims of collusion linked to a string of murders. A report is with the Public Prosecution Service.