Speculation over LVF statement

The unionist paramilitary LVF may announce an end to its activities in a statement later this week, according to reports.

However, speculation that the group is about to disband is being discounted.

It is thought he LVF’s summer feud with the much larger Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) may be the catalyst for the announcement.

Since July, the UVF has killed four people who it claimed had LVF connections.

A source close to the LVF was reported as saying the group was not being “pushed off the stage”.

He said: “They aren’t going away at the insistence of the UVF. Any reports that suggest that or that the LVF is going to disband are wrong.

“The organisation is likely to announce an end to its activities but only time will tell if that proves successful.”

The LVF is strongest in north Armagh, parts of north and east Belfast, and in north Down.

The LVF was formed nine years ago by the leader of the Portadown death squad, Billy ‘King Rat’ Wright. He had been head of the UVF in mid-Ulster but fell out with his colleagues and was expelled by them.

His group was responsible for a double murder in Poyntzpass, Co Armagh, in 1998.

The LVF called a ceasefire in that year and urged people to vote “no” in the referendum on the Good Friday Agreement.

Ignoring its own ceasefire, the LVF also went on to kill the journalist Martin O’Hagan and Richard Jameson, the UVF leader in the Portadown area of Co Armagh.

In 1997, members of the Irish National Liberation Army killed Billy Wright in Long Kesh prison.

Urgent Appeal