UDA admits to killing Adair ally

The organization, supposedly on ceasefire, accused McCullough of being involved in the murder of UDA “South East Antrim brigadier” John Gregg and another man shot alongside him in February.
This has been denied by McCullough’s family, who said he was a loyalist but had not been involved in murdering other loyalists. The family has also appealed for no retaliation for the murder.
McCullough was an acolyte of jailed Shankill Road UDA boss Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair and a member of the notorious C Company of the UDA based in the Lower Shankill estate known as “Little Beirut.”
When Gregg was murdered in February, allegedly on Adair’s orders, other UDA groups joined forces to evict his supporters out of the area, including his wife Gina. Adair himself was reimprisoned by the British government after new evidence of his involvement in paramilitary activity and is still in jail.
Gina Adair, along with the families of other C Company members, left Belfast for Scotland, but she, and McCullough, later settled in the English town of Bolton, where they linked up with the neo-Nazi group Combat 18.
McCullough became homesick, however. After assurances from the UDA that he would not be attacked, McCullough returned to the Lower Shankill two weeks ago.
The family home is about 50 yards from a massive wall mural depicting his dead father, William “Bucky” McCullough, a UDA man shot dead by the INLA in 1981. From the mural you can see the mountain on which Alan McCullough’s body was found.
On May 28, McCullough’s home was visited by two senior UDA men who asked him to come to a “meeting.” Telling his mother he was “200 percent” safe, McCullough left the house voluntarily with the two men.
He wasn’t seen alive again by his family. It’s believed the two men took him for a meal before murdering him. Admitting the attack, the UDA said McCullough had been involved in the Gregg murder.
The police have arrested several people but so far nobody has been charged, although the McCullough family said they know who carried out the murder.
There were repeated appeals by the missing man’s family over the next week, with his brother, Kenny, asking that the UDA to let them know, at least, where the body was. The police said they had launched a murder inquiry days before the remains were found.
A man-made lake in North Belfast was dredged and then attention switched to the outskirts of the city, where a two-day hunt finally ended in the grim discovery of his body.
Police officers closed the area the area while they examined it for forensic evidence. A spokesman said the search had been mounted as a result of “information received by police.”
Outbuildings were searched and spotter planes used to fly over the area, which consists of country roads and laneways.
Chief Constable Hugh Orde confirmed detectives were at the scene after workmen reported seeing what looked like a body. “What’s very important is that we have been treating this as a murder inquiry from very early on even though no body was found. That’s how seriously we have been taking this,” he said.