A CORONER is to decide if an inquest can be held into the death of a missing loyalist whose body has never been found as it is revealed that police have "some further investigative steps to take".
A preliminary hearing in Belfast yesterday heard that while police and the family of Mark Gourley believe he is dead, his remains have never been located.
Coroner Paddy McGurgan said he had to be "satisfied that a death has occurred" before inquest proceedings can be launched.
Gourley (36) from Carrickfergus was reported missing on March 7 2009. Police described him at the time as a vulnerable individual and said he was on medication when he disappeared.
But in 2013, following enquiries from The Irish News, the PSNI held a press conference appealing for information about his disappearance and confirmed the missing person case had been upgraded to a murder probe.
It is believed to be the first loyalist 'Disappeared' case, where he is understood to have been abducted and secretly buried.
Once described in court as a "loyalist foot-soldier", Gourley was last seen in the Burney's Lane area of Glengormley. Searches were carried out in the Carrickfergus and Newtownabbey areas after he vanished, but no trace of him was found.
He was reported to have been abducted by a breakaway faction of the UDA in south Antrim amid allegations that he owed the organisation money.
Gourley was sentenced to 18 months' probation in May 2005 after being captured on video as one of a crowd attacking an undercover policeman posing as an ice-cream man in the Castlemara estate in Carrickfergus.
During the preliminary hearing at Belfast coronor's court yesterday, Mr McGurgan said he had to be "satisfied that a death has occurred" before an inquest could begin.
The court heard that "the first stage will be ascertaining if Mr Gourley is dead" and then if the coroner has the "jurisdiction to hear the case".
"First of all we do not have a body... I have to be satisfied there was a death," said Mr McGurgan.
Members of Gourley's family were in court for the short hearing and a solicitor for his relatives said "it is the view of the family that Mr Gourley is deceased".
Mark Robinson, legal representative for the PSNI, also said: "The view of the PSNI is, on balance, Mr Gourley is deceased".
He added that "police have some further investigative steps to take, which should be completed by the end of the year".
Mr McGurgan said a further hearing will take place in January when he would "decide whether to hold an inquest".
