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Sinn Féin to raise concerns over UDA activity at meeting with chief constable

Chief Constable George Hamilton
Chief Constable George Hamilton Chief Constable George Hamilton

Sinn Féin is to meet the chief constable to discuss UDA activity.

Stormont leader Michelle O'Neill said she would raise concerns with George Hamilton about continuing violence attributed to the group, including the murder of loyalist Colin Horner in a supermarket car park in Bangor in May.

Mr Horner, 35, was shot dead by a lone gunman moments after he had put his three-year-old son in the back of his car. The murder has been linked to a feud among loyalist rivals.

"There is huge public disquiet about continued UDA activity and criminality which includes murder, drug dealing, extortion and intimidation," she said ahead of today's meeting.

"Sinn Féin asked for this meeting with the Chief Constable in the wake of the UDA murder of Colin Horner, who was gunned down in front of his child in a Bangor retail park.

"This is the fourth killing carried out by the UDA in the last three years."

The party also intends to discuss issues around delayed police disclosure of evidence to courts.

Mrs O'Neill said she would raise with Mr Hamilton the recent court judgment that criticised the PSNI for a failure to conduct an overarching examination of the extent of alleged state collusion with the Glenanne gang.

The Glenanne gang was a unit of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) that counted renegade police and Army personnel among its members.