Victims’ campaigner Raymond McCord: Loyalist paramilitaries are plotting to kill me

Posted By: May 21, 2019

IRISH CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING

Distributed to Congress by Irish National Caucus



Irish News. Belfast. Tuesday, May 21, 2019  

High-profile victims’ campaigner Raymond McCord has been warned loyalist paramilitaries are plotting to kill him, he revealed today.

The Belfast man said police alerted him to the new threat against his life and advised him to review personal security arrangements.

But Mr. McCord has vowed to press on with a planned High Court action against seven men in connection with the Ulster Volunteer Force murder of his son more than 21 years ago.

He insisted: “This will not stop me in my campaign for justice for young Raymond, or stop my private civil action. The fight continues.”

Raymond McCord Jnr, 22, was beaten to death before his body was dumped at a quarry outside north Belfast in November 1997.

The killing was carried out by a UVF unit based in the Mount Vernon area of the city.

In 2007 a major Police Ombudsman investigation established Special Branch officers colluded with the gang behind the murder.

The victim’s father has been an outspoken critic of the loyalist paramilitaries involved, resulting in him receiving a number of threat messages over the years.

Mr. McCord said he was contacted again by the police on Monday, and issued with the warning when he attended a PSNI station in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim.

“A sergeant told me simply they had received information that loyalist paramilitaries are planning to murder me by shooting me,” he disclosed.

The 65-year-old campaigner, who is recovering from surgery to remove his gallbladder, said he was given advice on his future movements.

He confirmed, however, that a lawsuit seeking damages over his son’s murder will continue.

The case is being taken against the man he claims headed up the UVF, and six others allegedly associated with the terror grouping.

Police declined to confirm or deny whether any warning was made.

A PSNI spokesman said: “We do not discuss the security of individuals and no inference should be drawn from this.

“However, if we receive information that a person’s life may be at risk, we will inform them accordingly.

“We never ignore anything which may put an individual at risk.”