28.12.03
Sunday Life
Murder suspect bolts to the country
By Stephen Breen
28 December 2003
THE Real IRA gunman suspected of blasting west Belfast man, Danny McGurk, to death earlier this year is believed to be in hiding, in Co Down.
Sunday Life understands the man - the main suspect in the killing - fled to the tiny village of Ballyhornan, after he was forced to flee Belfast.
Mr McGurk died when he was blasted five times by a dissident republican gang, at his Ross Street home.
The 35-year-old father-of-six, who had a conviction for manslaughter, was targeted after he was involved in a row with a leading renegade republican boss, from the Lower Falls Road area.
A priest at the funeral of the murder victim branded his Real IRA killers as "cowardly drug traffickers".
The dissident republican - believed to be one of the terror group's top bomb-makers - is from the Ardoyne area.
The thug is on the run from the Provisionals, and is now understood to be living in the home of another well-known renegade republican, in the south Down area.
It is also understood the terrorist has launched a Real IRA recruitment drive, after moving to the area.
Ballyhornan has been used as a base, in the past, by dissident republicans, but a notorious Continuity IRA gang, which was operating in the area, was smashed by the Provisionals.
A senior security source told Sunday Life: "Mainstream republicans are not too happy about this man coming to Ballyhornan."
sbreen@belfast telegraph.co.uk
Murder suspect bolts to the country
By Stephen Breen
28 December 2003
THE Real IRA gunman suspected of blasting west Belfast man, Danny McGurk, to death earlier this year is believed to be in hiding, in Co Down.
Sunday Life understands the man - the main suspect in the killing - fled to the tiny village of Ballyhornan, after he was forced to flee Belfast.
Mr McGurk died when he was blasted five times by a dissident republican gang, at his Ross Street home.
The 35-year-old father-of-six, who had a conviction for manslaughter, was targeted after he was involved in a row with a leading renegade republican boss, from the Lower Falls Road area.
A priest at the funeral of the murder victim branded his Real IRA killers as "cowardly drug traffickers".
The dissident republican - believed to be one of the terror group's top bomb-makers - is from the Ardoyne area.
The thug is on the run from the Provisionals, and is now understood to be living in the home of another well-known renegade republican, in the south Down area.
It is also understood the terrorist has launched a Real IRA recruitment drive, after moving to the area.
Ballyhornan has been used as a base, in the past, by dissident republicans, but a notorious Continuity IRA gang, which was operating in the area, was smashed by the Provisionals.
A senior security source told Sunday Life: "Mainstream republicans are not too happy about this man coming to Ballyhornan."
sbreen@belfast telegraph.co.uk
