SAOIRSE32

By Ciarán Barnes
Andersonstown News Monday
Belfast Media
**Via Newshound

Francisco Notarantonio used a 13-inch chef’s knife to kill Gerard Devlin in front of his partner and six children.

Details about the fatal Ballymurphy stabbing emerged at Belfast Crown Court on Friday during the appearance of five men from the same family who admit being involved in the brawl that led to Mr Devlin’s death.

Francisco Notarantonio, 21, admits manslaughter. Four others – Christopher Notarantonio, 56, Anthony Notarantonio, 50, William Notarantonio, 24, and Paul Oliver Burns, 26 – have pleaded guilty to affray. The five were due to be sentenced on Friday. However the decision on their punishment has been postponed so judge Mr Justice Stephens can consider the facts.

During the proceedings it emerged that Francisco Notarantonio stabbed Mr Devlin with a fearsome 13-inch chef’s knife.

The 39-year-old died from a single stab wound to the back, which entered between the ninth and tenth ribs and moved up into the chest, puncturing vital organs.

When details of the injuries were read out Mr Devlin’s tearful parents – Mary and Pat Devlin – left the courtroom.

The court heard how two relatives who rushed to Mr Devlin’s aid – Anthony McCabe and Thomas Loughran – were also attacked.

Francisco Notarantonio stabbed Mr McCabe in the chest, leaving a three-inch wound.

He also attempted to stab Mr Loughran, but missed. During the melée Mr Loughran was hit over the head with a spindle from a stair-banister.

The brawl, which occurred on February 3, 2006, began when Mr Devlin arrived at his partner’s home in Whitecliff Parade to collect her and his six children.

He intended taking them to the village of Glenavy to show them their new house.

As they were leaving, his son, Gerard Devlin Jnr, became involved in a confrontation with William Notarantonio.

Gerard Devlin intervened and began fighting with William Notarantonio, who ran into a relative’s house and summoned help.

Francisco Notarantonio, Christopher Notarantonio, Anthony Notarantonio and Paul Burns ran on to the street, armed with a variety of weapons, and began attacking Mr Devlin. Seeing their relative being assaulted, Mr Loughran and Mr McCabe ran to his aid. It was during the resulting brawl that Francisco Notarantonio inflicted the fatal stab wound. Mr Devlin was taken to hospital where he died.

In the hours after the fight angry crowds gathered in Whitecliff Parade. The home of Victor Notarantonio was attacked before the PSNI and community activists managed to restore calm.

Three days later police discovered a bloodied knife hidden in a garden in Ballymurphy Road. It contained blood belonging to Mr Devlin and Mr McCabe.

During questioning Francisco Notarantonio told detectives he had a knife but did not stab anyone.

But he would later plead guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Devlin, the malicious wounding of Anthony McCabe, and the attempted malicious wounding of Thomas Loughran.

The court was told Francisco Notarantonio has a previous drugs conviction.

Anthony Notarantonio has convictions for possession of firearms with intent, and possession of documents likely to be of use to terrorists. He was sentenced to eight years for these offences before being freed on licence in 2005 having served half his sentence.

Because the terms of his licence do not expire until 2009, Anthony Notarantonio may have to serve the full term of his original sentence on top of that which he receives for affray.

The court was told the three others – Christopher Notarantonio, William Notarantonio and Paul Burns – do not have criminal records.

The five men are due to be sentenced later this month.

A packed public gallery heard Mr Justice Stephens say he would defer sentencing until a later date.

A dozen PSNI officers, some in riot gear, separated around 20 members of the Notarantonio family from 30 members of the Devlin family.

By Steven McCaffery
Independent.ie
Monday November 24 2008

THERE were fears last night that the death of a top loyalist criminal from a suspected drugs overdose could spark a turf war as others lay claim to his mantle.

Police are investigating the sudden death of Ihab Shoukri, who was found yesterday morning at a house in the Grainon Way area of Newtownabbey, near Belfast.

And while officers said there are no suspicious circumstances, there are fears that his death may spark violence.

The 34-year-old and his brother Andre rose to prominence to become two of the most high-profile members of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) before establishing their own breakaway grouping.

Ihab Shoukri was part of a criminal network responsible for murder, drug dealing and racketeering and there were concerns that news of his death may encourage others to try and take his place.

May Blood, who has spent decades working in loyalist communities, said Ihab Shoukri left a legacy of shattered lives behind him.

“I am sad to hear a young man has lost his life, but the first thought that came to my mind was that those who live by the sword die by it,” she said.

“This guy put drugs into the community for years and years and destroyed so many lives.

“I hope [the] prediction of a turf war is wrong, because we have gone through turf wars so many times in the Protestant areas.

“I hope this young man will be given a funeral and that will be the end of it, but I doubt that.”

Guilty

Ihab and Andre Shoukri — sons of an Egyptian who married a woman from Northern Ireland — were regularly identified in the media as being leading loyalists.

Earlier this year Ihab Shoukri pleaded guilty to UDA membership after he was arrested with five other men at a bar in March 2006 where they were accused of rehearsing for a UDA show of strength.

Last June it emerged that while Ihab was sentenced to 15 months in jail for his part in events at the Alexandra Bar in north Belfast, he would be free within two months after time already served was taken-off.

Nationalist politicians were critical of the sentencing after the judge in the case said Ihab Shoukri only escaped a longer jail term because of progress in the peace process.

It was reported at the time that the sentence was to be challenged.

Last year Andre Shoukri was sentenced to nine years in jail for trying to extort thousands of pounds from a pub owner.

A police source once said of the loyalist gang led by the Shoukris: “They thought they were above the law… You could say they thought they were untouchable.” The Shoukri brothers were expelled from the UDA two years ago after setting up a breakaway faction in south east Antrim.

Murders

The UDA was formed in the early 1970s and despite carrying out a murder campaign under the cover name ‘Ulster Freedom Fighters’, the UDA remained a legal organisation until 1992.

It is the largest paramilitary group in Northern Ireland and was responsible for more than 400 murders during the Troubles. Ihab Shoukri had been a so-called ‘brigadier’ in the UDA.

May Blood told the BBC: “The UDA is a very discredited group. I know there are some in it trying to move towards decommissioning but in my opinion they are not moving quick enough.

“But certainly his [Ihab Shoukri’s] legacy would have been in criminal matters.

“There possibly could be a turf war out of it. I hope it does not lead to violence in our streets.”

- Steven McCaffery

News Letter
24 November 2008

POLICE have come under attack in Lurgan as they dealt with a security alert in the town.

The sustained attack in the Cornakinnegar Road area on Sunday left a police car extensively damaged, but there were no reports of any injuries.

Army explosive experts were forced to carry out a number of controlled explosions on a suspicious object.

While attending the scene police came under attack from a crowd throwing stones, fireworks and other missiles.

A number of petrol bombs were also thrown.

It is thought the hoax was staged to draw police and emergency services into the area so they could be attacked.

The town has seen a number of attacks on police by dissident republicans and their supporters, some using the tactic of a hoax bomb to lure police into an ambush.

Area Commander Chief Inspector Jason Murphy said: “It is deeply disturbing that in carrying out an operation to safeguard the local community, police themselves came under attack when petrol bombs and other items were thrown at them. It is fortunate that no-one was injured.”

Army bomb experts were called out to a suspicious object in the Ardenlee estate in Downpatrick yesterday. The alert began at around 2.50pm and the road into the estate was closed.

IAIS
11/24/08

Northern Ireland Security Minister Paul Goggins is to come under pressure tomorrow to fill a multi-million pound hole in the policing budget.

Last week Police Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde produced a cuts plan to help balance his books, but this was rejected by the Policing Board whose members insisted government must pay bills left over from the Troubles.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is struggling to pay pensions to thousands of retired officers and faces a £90 million ($USD133m) compensation bill for officers who suffered hearing damage during weapons training in the 1970s.

Mr Goggins will meet Policing Board members tomorrow at Stormont, with one politician insisting the board was determined to resist cuts to police services.

Ulster Unionist policing board member Basil McCrea said, however, that if decisions were not taken quickly, then the prospect of radical cuts to policing would emerge.

‘We need action today,’ he said. ‘Many of these costs are outside our control…it is unreasonable for us to fund such issues at the cost of operational matters.’

He said the board members would show a united front on the need for government action: ‘The board is baring its teeth on this.’

Representatives of the board will meet Mr Goggins tomorrow to demand government foots the bill for costs linked to the Troubles and the period of direct rule.

When the Royal Ulster Constabulary became the PSNI, the force was downsized in recognition of the changing political situation in Northern Ireland, but the shift has left the service with a massive pensions bill to pay.

Mr Orde is on record as saying he does not want to put a halt to recruitment, which is made on a 50/50 basis between Protestants and Catholics to ensure a cross-community police service.

But his cuts proposals are understood to have suggested taking £1.5m ($USD2.2M) from the police training budget, cuts in civilian and police overtime, while there is also the risk that civilian staff could face losing their jobs.

Mr Goggins will meet the policing board representatives for talks tomorrow morning, but the government has already said it has handed substantial funding to the force.

Henry McDonald
Guardian
Sunday November 23 2008

First minister Peter Robinson has been given assurances from republicans that the IRA Army Council has permanently gone out of business.

The Democratic Unionist leader said he wanted to say in public what republicans had told him in private. ‘Right at the heart of building confidence within the community will be people’s perception of those who are in the assembly,’ said Robinson.

‘It’s important that those who are in the leadership of the republican movement make it very clear publicly, as they have done to us privately, that the IRA is out of business for good and is not going to return.’

Robinson secured a deal with Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness last week to resume meetings of the Northern Ireland power-sharing cabinet. The two parties have agreed that policing and justice powers will be transferred to the Stormont Assembly, although Sinn Fein was not given a firm date as to when this will happen.

Meanwhile, police appealed for calm in east Belfast last night after vandals damaged a memorial on the Lower Newtownards Road erected in memory of two Protestant men shot by the IRA in 1970. White paint was thrown over it and offensive slogans daubed on the plaque.

Police said a gang of youths were seen in the area at about 3am and an officer chased them down Bryson Street towards the nationalist Short Strand area. Several items linked to the attack were recovered.

Sinn Fein’s east Belfast representative, Niall O Donnghaile, said: ‘Last night’s attack on the monument on the Newtownards Road was completely reprehensible. It is essential that the work which is ongoing to try to resolve the interface issues in this area continues, and that we all try to ensure such attacks are not repeated.’

By Lesley-Anne Henry and David Gordon
Belfast Telegraph
Monday, 24 November 2008

A post mortem examination is due to be carried out today on the body of loyalist terror boss Ihab Shoukri.

Police are understood to be investigating a drugs link after the ousted UDA brigadier collapsed while watching the Ricky Hatton boxing match at a house in the Grainon Way area of Newtownabbey on Saturday night.

The Shoukri brothers - Ihab, left and Andre, right

Last night a spokeswoman for the PSNI confirmed they were investigating the sudden death of a 34-year-old man but stressed there were no suspicious circumstances.

Rumours circulating in the Rathcoole estate, where Shoukri had been living since his release from jail, suggest he may have suffered some sort of seizure – possibly an epileptic fit.

In 2004, Ihab Shoukri collapsed in a bookmaker’s shop while out on bail for charges of membership of the UFF and UDA. He suffered a fractured cheek and required treatment at hospital. In an appeal for a change to his bail conditions that would allow him to live with his girlfriend’s mother, Shoukri’s lawyer told Belfast High court there were fears he could suffer from “epilepsy of something of that nature”. The appeal was refused but the judge said Shoukri could make arrangements for someone to move into his Bangor home.

Originally from the Westland estate in north Belfast, Ihab Shoukri was one of three boys born to an Egyptian father who married a local woman.

In June he was jailed for 15 months after pleading guilty to membership of the UDA. He was among five men arrested when police stormed a paramilitary show of strength dress rehearsal at the Alexandra Bar in March 2006.

However there was public outrage when the infamous loyalist who played a prominent role in a vicious terrorist campaign and racketeering operation was released just weeks into the sentence because of the length of time spent on remand.

Nationalist politicians were critical of the sentencing after the judge in the case said Shoukri only escaped a longer jail term because of progress in the peace process.

Ihab and his brother Andre were expelled from the UDA two years ago after establishing a breakaway faction which was involved in widespread criminality including drug dealing in south east Antrim.

Andre Shoukri (30) first became known after being charged with the manslaughter of a young tennis star in Belfast in 1996.

He punched Gareth Parker – a Catholic – who fell on the road and was hit by a car. Shoukri pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of assault and received an eight-month jail sentence.

He became known as the ‘bookies brigadier’ after he squandered more than £1m of the UDA’s funds gambling on horses.

Last November Ihab Shoukri took over leadership of the group when his brother was jailed for nine years for blackmail and intimidation and money laundering.

In August he was back in court in Belfast after pleading guilty to a string of motoring offenses including driving while disqualified and having no insurance.

A police source once said of the gang led by the Shoukris: “They thought they were above the law… You could say they thought they were untouchable.”

Journalist Jim McDowell, whose book ‘Mummy’s Boys’ documents the life and crimes of both brothers, described the Shoukris as “para-mafia gangsters”.

“The relationship between myself and the Shoukris is well documented. It was fairly antagonistic relationship and I have received a number of threats which the police have brought to my home that I believe them to have come from the Shoukris or their mob. But I am not gloating over anybody death.

“Both Andre and Ihab were already ostracised from the UDA. Andre is behind bars and is therefore ineffective even in aligning himself with the breakaway east Antrim faction that they established.

“Drugs were endemic and if it was a drugs overdose that took the life of Ihab Shourki then he died from his own excess.”

Baroness May Blood, who has spent decades working in loyalist communities, said: “There possibly could be a turf war out of it (Ihab’s death). I hope it does not lead to violence in our streets.”

KEY DATES

March 2006 Ihab Shoukri arrested in police raid on north Belfast bar. UDA had been preparing for a show-of-strength.

June 2006 UDA Inner Council leadership expels Shoukri brothers and associate Alan McClean from paramilitary organisation. Statement reads: “It is our duty as defenders of the Protestant people whom we serve to create safer communities that are drug and crime free and where our people can live without fear of oppression.”

August 2006 UDA force Shoukri associates including McClean to flee Belfast

International Herald Tribune
24 Nov 2008

An investigation is under way after four policemen died in Northern Ireland when their vehicle hit a wall and burst into flames.

The officers were from the County Down area and died when their Shogun 4x4 crashed on a coastal road between Kilkeel and Warrenpoint shortly before 4am yesterday.

Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde led tributes to the men, who were aged in their mid-20s to mid-30s.
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There were no other vehicles involved in the crash and a senior officer will investigate the tragedy, including claims that a member of the public made a desperate bid to rescue the men.

The two full-time and two part-time officers have yet to be identified, but one who was named locally as Declan Greene lost three members of his family in a County Down fishing tragedy six years ago.

Sir Hugh said: “This is an extremely sad day for the family, friends and colleagues who served with the police officers who lost their lives in this tragic incident in the early hours of this morning.

“The police family have lost four fine police officers in what are deeply tragic circumstances and our heartfelt condolences go out to their families.”

A “black box” recorder in the police vehicle will be key to uncovering what happened and police said they will investigate unconfirmed reports that the blaze set off ammunition in the car.

Police have ruled out speculation that the men had been trapped in the vehicle by a locking system.

In 2002 three members of the Greene family - eight-year-old Michael and his father and grandfather who were also called Michael - died when their fishing vessel, the Tullaghmurry Lass, sank off the County Down coast.

Last night a priest from the area, Father Michael Murray, said that Mr Greene was a nephew of the eldest of the three family members to die in the fishing tragedy.

Irish Times
GERRY MORIARTY, Northern Editor
Monday, November 24, 2008

FORMER SENIOR UDA figure in north Belfast Ihab Shoukri has been found dead in a house on the outskirts of the city.

Mr Shoukri (34), who was ousted from the organisation along with his brother André two years ago, is believed to have died from a drugs overdose. He was discovered dead in a house in Newtownabbey on Saturday night. The PSNI is not treating his death as suspicious.

He was released from prison during the summer after he was sentenced to 15 months in prison in June for his involvement in a loyalist paramilitary show of strength in a north Belfast bar.

He was released shortly after the sentence was imposed based on the amount of time he was detained while awaiting trial. His brother is serving nine years on a variety of charges, including blackmail and intimidation.

The Shoukris rose rapidly through UDA ranks in north Belfast, notwithstanding their untypical background. The brothers were sons of an Egyptian father who married a local woman.

Both were heavily involved in criminal activity such as drugs, extortion and racketeering which was tied in with their paramilitary activities. They were particularly engaged in drugs, making vast amounts of money in this area, according to security and local sources. About two years ago, the brothers fell foul of the UDA which is run by an inner council of six so-called brigadiers.

While it was common knowledge that the UDA was involved in various forms of criminality, all the publicity around the Shoukris was a source of embarrassment when some in the organisation were said to favour a move away from crime.

Belfast Telegraph
Monday, 24 November 2008

Police were attacked with petrol bombs, fireworks and stones as they attended a security alert in Co Armagh. A police vehicle was extensively damaged during the incident in Lurgan — the first of two security alerts in Northern Ireland yesterday.

Army bomb experts carried out a number of controlled explosions on a suspicious object left close to Cornakinnegar Road and North Circular Road in the town. The area which backs on to the republican Kilwilke estate was sealed off for much of yesterday afternoon and motorists were urged to avoid the area. PSNI Chief Inspector Jason Murphy, area commander in Lurgan, said it was fortunate that no one was injured.

Belfast Telegraph
Monday, 24 November 2008

Ihab Shoukri was just one of many to end up on the wrong side of the loyalist lines.

He fits into that category alongside Johnny Adair, Jim Gray, John White, Billy Wright, Andre Shoukri, Mark Haddock and so many others like them.

All climbed to high rank in the various loyalist organisations, and all ended up on the losing side in different feuds and battles.

It is the way of the loyalist world — a place of competing individuals, organisations, interests and egos.

Some are dead, some in jail and others in exile.

Ihab Shoukri, like his brother Andre, once held the rank of “brigadier”, the highest position in the UDA.

And like others of that position, including Adair and Gray, they were ousted in the loyalist infighting of the post-ceasefire years.

Andre Shoukri is in jail and his brother Ihab is now dead.

What was his war, his mission? He never fought the IRA or defended Ulster.

In the peace process years, I have defined the battle within loyalism as a fight for its destiny, a fight between “cause” and “criminal” loyalists.

Ihab Shoukri and his brother Andre fitted into that latter category. Their stories are told in the words of crime, drugs, extortion, bullying. They preyed on their communities, living on money that was never earned.

“He (Ihab Shoukri) was viewed in loyalism as a criminal, nothing more than a criminal,” one loyalist commented.

“Money was his God,” he added, comparing him to the murdered east Belfast UDA leader Jim Gray.

His name was “equally bad”, the source said.

And that is how you fall in that loyalist world — a “brigadier” one

day, a criminal and outcast the next.

There are those who would try to tell you that there is a “good UDA” and a “bad UDA”.

But those in the security and intelligence worlds who read the organisation best know that criminal activity, at different levels, can still be found throughout that organisation and in its six so-called brigade areas.

Gray and Shoukri were more obvious than some of the others — less discreet; their lives lived in the newspaper headlines.

Inside the UDA in Belfast, Adair is said to have “elevated” the Shoukris.

Of that three one is dead, one in prison and the other hiding in Scotland — forced out of Belfast’s Shankill Road.

For all the rank they once held, that is how they will be remembered, as men who ended up on different losing sides, just some of the loyalist outcasts.

International Herald Tribune
23 Nov 2008

DUBLIN, Ireland: One of Belfast’s most notorious anti-Catholic extremists was found dead Sunday from an apparent drug overdose, three months after winning parole from prison.

Police said they were not seeking anyone else on suspicion of involvement in the death of Ihab Shoukri, 34, a former commander of the Ulster Defense Association, the biggest outlawed paramilitary group in Northern Ireland.

Together with his younger brother, Shoukri spent years terrorizing Catholics in his north Belfast power base and running a wide range of criminal rackets — most notably drug dealing. Prominent community activists said Shoukri would not be missed, and the manner of his demise represented poetic justice.

“I am sad to hear a young man has lost his life, but the first thought that came to my mind was: Those who live by the sword die by it,” said Protestant community worker May Blood. “This guy put drugs into the community for years and years and destroyed so many lives.”

The Shoukri brothers were ousted from the UDA command in north Belfast in June 2006 after both had been jailed pending trial for paramilitary activities. They had angered UDA colleagues for ignoring orders to extricate the organization from a wide range of criminal enterprises, including counterfeiting, smuggling and prostitution.

In April, Shoukri pleaded guilty to UDA membership after police raided a pub and caught him and five henchmen planning a UDA public demonstration. He was sentenced to 15 months, including time spent awaiting trial.

To the anger of many Catholics, Shoukri was freed early from prison in August as part of a reduced sentence because he had pleaded guilty — the latest in a long line of seemingly lenient sentences for well-known UDA figures.

The UDA killed more than 400 people, mostly Catholic civilians, from 1971 to 1994, when the group began observing a cease-fire as part of a burgeoning peace process. Over the past decade, the British government has failed in various initiatives to persuade the group to disarm in line with Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace accord.

The brawny Shoukri brothers — offspring of an immigrant Egyptian father and Belfast Protestant mother — rose quickly through the ranks of the north Belfast UDA in the late 1990s as the group was turning away from intimidating Catholics and toward full-time gangsterism.

They formed a loose alliance with the UDA’s most dangerous figure of the day, Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair, a west Belfast commander who shared their passion for bodybuilding.

Adair went back to prison in 2003 after coming out the loser in a bloody power struggle with other UDA chiefs, then fled Northern Ireland two years later upon his parole.