News report from Day 4 of Daniel McColgan’s inquest. Madden & Finucane represent the McColgan family.
An author has told the Daniel McColgan murder inquest that a senior UDA figure justified his killing, describing him as a “legitimate target”.
The 20-year-old was murdered as he arrived for work at a postal sorting office in Newtownabbey in January 2002.
Ian Scott interviewed UDA ‘brigadier’ John Gregg in October 2002.
Gregg said he believed Mr McColgan had been involved in riots at the interface between the Longlands estate where his family lived, and White City estate.
He claimed that this knowledge was from “a security force source” – though the credibility of this claim was questioned in court.
The inquest heard that Gregg said in the eyes of the paramilitary organisation that made him “a legitimate target”.
Gregg was shot dead by rival UDA members in February 2003.
Mr Scott, who wrote the book Crimes of Loyalty, said that the routine of Danny McColgan’s work made him an “easy target”.
The next evidence will be heard 16 and 17 December.
