Five UDA members in north Belfast have been dismissed from the organisation for allegedly being involved in drugs and "other questionable activities", according to loyalist sources.
Their expulsion follows changes at a senior level in the UDA in that area. One source said that the organisation in north Belfast had "really needed to clean up its act".
Couple tell of agonising wait for AIDS test result after syringe attack on garda
Earlier this month a prisoner attacked a garda with a blood-filled syringe. The garda does not know if he was stabbed in the ensuing fight. Now his wife does not know if he has AIDS. She spoke to
John Maher, Drugs and Crime Correspondent
By JOHN MAHER
Drugs and Crime Correspondent
SGT Brian Fizpatrick has taken time off work because of what happened to him earlier this month. His wife, Florence, says he cannot talk about it but she speaks for him.
There were three prisoners to be taken from Mountjoy prison in Dublin to a court hearing more than 50 miles away. There were six gardai to escort them.
Sgt Fitzpatrick rode in the front, with the garda driver. Behind them was a Perspex screen dividing the cabin from the back of the van, where four other gardai were with the prisoners.
The hearing passed off without incident, but on the way back one prisoner suddenly produced a syringe.
"Brian said this fellow just wanted to escape, and nothing was going to stop him. This guy was just vicious. He took out this syringe and started jabbing with it and squirting blood. He bit one of the guards in the back and he stabbed another in the hand with the syringe."
The prisoner made a dive for the side door of the van as Sgt Fitzpatrick jumped out of the front.
"Brian went round to the side and the prisoner was at the door with the syringe. Brian tried to apprehend him, but he made off up the road and Brian went after him.
"He ended up in fist-to-fist confrontation with this fellow. He had this syringe and he was determined to use it and determined to get away. Brian said he'd never seen anything as vicious."
Sgt Fitzpatrick was using his baton while the prisoner was flailing out and jabbing at him with the syringe. "Brian said it was the worst experience he ever had. Your man kept lashing out at him and he said `I'll give you the virus!' Brian was terrified."
A second garda arrived and the two managed to subdue the prisoner and return him to the van. Brian collected the syringe and brought it with him. They stopped at the next Garda station on the way back to Dublin so that the gardai could clean off the saliva and blood. Then the van proceeded to Dublin.
"Brian rang me from work and said `Can you come and get me?' I said I wanted to go swimming first, so he said OK and I went over for him later. He was really pale but he was very quiet. He didn't say anything.
"When we were coming up to the house he stopped me and said `There's something I have to tell you".'
Sgt Fitzpatrick explained to his wife what had happened with the prisoner, and said that he and his colleagues who were attacked had gone to the Mater Hospital. Brian was given a Hepatitis B and a tetanus injection, and left two blood samples.
"He said they were told to be careful with their wives and children, and not to have any sexual contact with their wives.
"I was just shocked. So I brought him into the kitchen and he stood there and I began to peel his clothes off and then we saw the blood over his back and over his chest. We hadn't seen it on his jumper, but it was all over the shirt. I sent him up for a shower and he must have been a half an hour scrubbing himself clean."
Florence says she and her husband do not know if he was stabbed with the syringe, but think he was. He did not have any cuts on his chest or back. "But he had bruises all over his shoulders and on his face."
Now they are waiting for the results of the blood tests. They do not know if the prisoner had any virus, whether it was his own or someone else's blood in the syringe. They do not know for certain if Brian was stabbed with the syringe. The prisoner agreed after a week to give a blood sample, which is also being tested. Results are due at the end of this week.
Florence wants an official investigation into how the prisoner was able to produce a syringe.
Brian and Florence have two children, aged 14 and 12.
"We had to tell them because they saw their Daddy was upset so we've tried to reassure them. They've seen stuff on the television and they want to know if Daddy's going to be gone. And the truth is, we just don't know."