Bookies victims 'innocent' - UDA

Published Thursday, 02 February 2012
Comments
Toggle font size
Print

UDA leader Jackie McDonald has said that the five victims of a 1992 gun attack on a bookies in south Belfast were innocent, 20 years after the massacre was carried out by loyalist paramilitaries.

Video available to UK viewers only.
We’re sorry. This video is unavailable from your location.

But McDonald, who was in jail at the time of the killings, has told UTV he "can't say sorry" - because he "wasn't part of it".

Four men and a 15-year-old boy were shot dead in Sean Graham's bookmakers on the Ormeau Road, in broad daylight on February 5 1992.

Two UFF gunmen carried out the attack using a rifle and a Browning pistol.

A probe by the Historical Enquiries Team resulted in investigators stating in September 2010 that the pistol had actually been handed back to the gang by police - fuelling collusion theories.

No one has ever been brought to justice over the murders.

"There are obviously questions around who armed the loyalists, who allowed it to happen, who decided that individuals would never be prosecuted," Mark Sykes, who was wounded in the attack, told UTV.

At the time, the UDA tried to justify the shootings in a statement that ended with the words: "Remember Teebane."

Eight men were killed and six others injured when their construction van was blown up by a roadside bomb planted by the IRA, on January 17 1992.

But Rev Ivor Smith, a now retired Presbyterian minister who has worked with the Teebane victims' families since the atrocity told UTV the message of retaliation was "like a knife through the heart".

"We were absolutely appalled at the thought that somebody would try to do something like that and justify it by bringing in Teebane," he said.

"As far as the families were concerned, it was very definitely not 'in my name'."

Twenty years on, both attacks remain open wounds that have devastated families and left them with questions that might never be answered.

It will be cold comfort for them that the UDA leader now says the escalating violence and mass killings of the time actually hastened the peace process.

© UTV News
Comments Comments
37 Comments
Cynical in belfast wrote (107 days ago):
Only a knuckle dragging bigotted moron displaying a low IQ (based on the spelling & grammar) displayed by 'Ulster Loylist' would attempt to justify the cowardly murder of 5 unarmed innocent human beings by these scum. You are a VERY sad person......
Ulster Loylist in Northern Ireland wrote (107 days ago):
The responsibilty of this operation and others like it lay soley at the feet of sectarian Provisional IRA terrorists and their various offshoots. Lets not forget the hundreds of innocent Protestants murdered in sectarian attacks. It's a cold hard truth the IRA and their supporters hate to admit. Let's not forget the Ulster Freedom Fighters were formed after the PIRA murdered 6 elderly Protestants in Londonderry.
seamus60 in Derry wrote (108 days ago):
Folks, like it or lump it, there is a pattern emerging more and more by the day. One that reflects one rule for the buckshee soldier and another for those who dished out their orders in the comfort of deals between their counterparts on all sides. These great leaders with all their courage and vision who have the ordasity to imply they had nothing to do with the killings as they didn`t pull the triggers. Even with Bloody Sunday we hear of soldier a,b. c etc yet nothing of who dished out the orders. Problem for all these leaders is that when soldier a,b or c decide to spill the beans in order to share the blame the names of those inocent. now suited and booted will be drawn in. Even though they where never members, left way back or as with Jackie were in prison at the time.
Victim of sectarian loyalist murder attempt in belfast wrote (109 days ago):
If this scumbag can't show remorse and apologise for the actions of these moronic sectarian cowards who murdered unarmed innocent people, who were targetted SOLELY because of their religion, in the name of an 'organisation' which he played such a major role of organising and running, then he should crawl back under his slimey rock and keep his mouth SHUT!!!
noel mc guinness in lowerormeau wrote (109 days ago):
with all the truth coming now after 40yrs of heartache about who actually was keeping this war going.the british spooks.they where running both republican and loyalist organisations.look to the truth and remember all the innocent victems on both sides of a terrible waste that was the troubles
POST A COMMENT:
Name:  
Email address*:    
Location:  
Validation:
House Rules:  
Your Comment:  
[All comments are moderated and will not appear immediately. Your name, location and comment will be displayed on this page if your post passes moderation.]
MOST POPULAR GALLERIES