A DUP councillor has been criticised by his own party after he supported a murdered UVF member who described Catholics as "fenian scum" and said they should be incinerated.
In a social media posting, Ballymena councillor John Carson praised loyalist George Seawright, writing: "George didn't only talk the talk, he walked the walk, something that is lacking in many today."
Seawright, who was a Belfast city councillor for six years, was shot dead by the IPLO in 1987. He was part of a loyalist group who tried to remove a tricolour from the top of the Whiterock Leisure Centre in 1984.
He repeatedly made outspoken attacks on Catholics and once said: "Taxpayers money would be better spent on an incinerator and burning the lot of them. Their priests should be thrown in and burnt as well."
The Sunday Life reported that Mr Carson also criticised his own party on the South East Antrim Veterans Association facebook page and agreed with claims that some DUP members had "lay down and sucked up to republicans".
A DUP spokesman said the party "disassociated" itself from councillor Carson's comments.
"There is no place for violence or the threat of violence in Northern Ireland. We stand with the innocent victims of violence, not with the victim makers," he added.
Earlier this year, Mr Carson claimed coronavirus was God's punishment for same-sex marriage and abortion.
