A vicious attack on a leading UVF man by a hated South East Antrim UDA figure has caused serious tension between the rival loyalist groups.
UVF bosses in the Rathcoole estate in Newtownabbey are now demanding SEA UDA leader Gary Fisher punishes his out-of-control member, who was also involved in an assault on a teenage boy the same night.
Until last summer the notorious thug was SEA UDA ‘commander’ in the area, but he was stood down and beaten by the gang after locals complained he was terrorising them.
He had been lying low until a fortnight ago when he showed up outside a UVF man’s home and punched him after assaulting a 13-year-old boy following a drink and drugs binge.
Both incidents were connected to rows involving the SEA UDA bully-boy’s daughter.
“The UVF has told the SEA UDA that they want him punished, and by that it means kneecapped or beaten, because the attack breaches the Monkstown Agreement,” a loyalist insider told Sunday Life.
The Monkstown Agreement was drawn up between the UVF and UDA following the 2000 feud that resulted in seven murders. It is designed to reduce tension between members of the groups in the event of a dispute.
A key point states: “No individual or group will take a dispute to a person’s home or to the home of a relative. The homes of military personnel and their families must at all times remain off-limits during any dispute.”
Loyalist sources said UVF demands that the SEA UDA punish its member has put its veteran crime chief Gary Fisher in a difficult position.
“Fisher doesn’t want to be seen to be taking orders from the UVF because the SEA UDA in Rathcoole is much bigger and stronger,” added an insider.
“But he will have to do something because you can’t have SEA UDA men going round to the homes of other loyalists and punching them while off their heads on drugs.”
The UVF man on the receiving end of the beating is disliked by SEA UDA members, who accuse him of having a cosy relationship with the police.
They also suspect him of telling the PSNI about its drug rackets and supplying information that has led to several major cocaine and cannabis busts in recent months.
A SEA UDA source said: “This fella has some nerve informing on anyone, seeing as how he is up to his neck in criminality.
“He is the UVF’s money man in Rathcoole and goes around at the weekend collecting all the extortion cash, which he hides in a biscuit tin under the driver’s seat of his car.”
Police pressure on SEA UDA crime rackets in Rathcoole has led to its main cocaine dealer — a veteran loyalist known as ‘the Butcher’ — bringing back out-of-favour members to deal its drugs.
Among them are two rioters, one of whom is his brother-in-law, who were the victims of SEA UDA punishment attacks last year.
Our source said: “These idiots are pretending like they’re in charge, even criticising the new UDA leadership in Rathcoole, saying they’re old men who prefer to sit at home, doing nothing.
“It was their mouths that got them in trouble the last time and it looks as if they haven’t learned that lesson.”
*John Lee*
April 04 2022
No wonder Ireland doesn’t want reunification with this giant council estate.
There’s a place in the world for everyone. For these fine people it’s prison.
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A vicious attack on a leading UVF man by a hated South East Antrim UDA figure has caused serious tension between the rival loyalist groups.
UVF bosses in the Rathcoole estate in Newtownabbey are now demanding SEA UDA leader Gary Fisher punishes his out-of-control member, who was also involved in an assault on a teenage boy the same night.
Until last summer the notorious thug was SEA UDA ‘commander’ in the area, but he was stood down and beaten by the gang after locals complained he was terrorising them.
He had been lying low until a fortnight ago when he showed up outside a UVF man’s home and punched him after assaulting a 13-year-old boy following a drink and drugs binge.
Both incidents were connected to rows involving the SEA UDA bully-boy’s daughter.
“The UVF has told the SEA UDA that they want him punished, and by that it means kneecapped or beaten, because the attack breaches the Monkstown Agreement,” a loyalist insider told Sunday Life.
The Monkstown Agreement was drawn up between the UVF and UDA following the 2000 feud that resulted in seven murders. It is designed to reduce tension between members of the groups in the event of a dispute.
A key point states: “No individual or group will take a dispute to a person’s home or to the home of a relative. The homes of military personnel and their families must at all times remain off-limits during any dispute.”
Loyalist sources said UVF demands that the SEA UDA punish its member has put its veteran crime chief Gary Fisher in a difficult position.
“Fisher doesn’t want to be seen to be taking orders from the UVF because the SEA UDA in Rathcoole is much bigger and stronger,” added an insider.
“But he will have to do something because you can’t have SEA UDA men going round to the homes of other loyalists and punching them while off their heads on drugs.”
The UVF man on the receiving end of the beating is disliked by SEA UDA members, who accuse him of having a cosy relationship with the police.
They also suspect him of telling the PSNI about its drug rackets and supplying information that has led to several major cocaine and cannabis busts in recent months.
A SEA UDA source said: “This fella has some nerve informing on anyone, seeing as how he is up to his neck in criminality.
“He is the UVF’s money man in Rathcoole and goes around at the weekend collecting all the extortion cash, which he hides in a biscuit tin under the driver’s seat of his car.”
Police pressure on SEA UDA crime rackets in Rathcoole has led to its main cocaine dealer — a veteran loyalist known as ‘the Butcher’ — bringing back out-of-favour members to deal its drugs.
Among them are two rioters, one of whom is his brother-in-law, who were the victims of SEA UDA punishment attacks last year.
Our source said: “These idiots are pretending like they’re in charge, even criticising the new UDA leadership in Rathcoole, saying they’re old men who prefer to sit at home, doing nothing.
“It was their mouths that got them in trouble the last time and it looks as if they haven’t learned that lesson.”
*John Lee*
April 04 2022
No wonder Ireland doesn’t want reunification with this giant council estate.
There’s a place in the world for everyone. For these fine people it’s prison.