Residents in one of the north’s largest loyalist housing estates have rejected claims that 90 per cent of people living there had links to loyalist paramilitary groups.
Retired PSNI officer Roy Suitters made the remarks during an inquest into the murder of Catholic man Danny McColgan earlier this week.
The father-of-one was shot dead by the UFF as he arrived for work at a postal office in Rathcoole, in Newtownabbey, in January 2002.
Residents of the estate last night reacted angrily to the claims.
The remarks were made as the former policeman was being questioned by a barrister acting for the McColgan family about a "possible suspect" in the murder.
"He had associations to people who were connected to organisations," Mr Suitters said.
"But that would be 90 percent of people who lived in Rathcoole.
"There were individuals who visited the flat who were on the periphery of organisations but in Rathcoole it’s very difficult not to have that."
However, residents in the loyalist area have hit out at the remarks.
Phil Hamilton, a volunteer community worker, claimed the comments "demonised" the area.
"What you have is a very angry community who now have been demonised by the ex officer’s claims and I want Mr Suitters to sit down with me and some elected representatives and tell him how the community feels about his comments."
Mr Hamilton, who is a former member of the Progressive Unionist Party, said that more than five percent of current residents in Rathcoole are Catholic.
He claimed that the figure given by Mr Suitters would mean that around 6,000 people in the area "have associations and links with paramilitaries."
Mr Hamilton, who lives in Rathcoole, said he has been inundated by complaints about the remarks.
"This is a PUL (Protestant Unionist Loyalist) community and we have people from different backgrounds and that’s why it’s very important for Mr Suitters to give us his definition of ‘associations’ and links.
"Because I know the vast majority of Rathcoole have no association and no links to paramilitaries."
He said senior police officers should review the material that Mr Suitters is using adding they "should give clarity to the community on this statement".
Antrim and Newtownabbey councillor UUP councillor John Scott described the remarks as a "slur" and said the murder of Danny McColgan was "greeted with shock and disgust by the vast majority of people in Rathcoole who simply want to bring up their families and live their lives in peace."
"They are good and decent people who do not support paramilitarism or criminality of any kind," he said.
DUP MP Nigel Dodds said: "We have received a large number of calls to our offices from Rathoole residents who are rightly angry at this misrepresentation of their area. Many communities which suffered from appalling incidents during ‘the troubles’ have made huge steps forward in the intervening years and Rathcoole is no different to other areas in having made that progress."
Built in several phases during the 1950s and 60’s it is estimated that at one time the population of the estate was one-third Catholic.
However, during the sixties and seventie many were forced to flee because of sectarian intimidation.
These included the family of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands who spent his early years in the area.
