Adair's wife loses Bolton house appeal

The wife of jailed loyalist paramilitary boss Johnny Adair has failed in her bid to claim the right to a council house in northern…

The wife of jailed loyalist paramilitary boss Johnny Adair has failed in her bid to claim the right to a council house in northern England.

Mrs Gina Adair applied to Bolton Council for a home in March, but Judge Richard Holman has dismissed her case at Manchester County Court.

She will now remain in her privately rented accommodation in Horwich, near Bolton, Greater Manchester, or move elsewhere.

Mrs Adair fled Northern Ireland in February with her three children and a tiny band of her husband's supporters, after they were driven out of their stronghold in the Lower Shankill area of Belfast by a rival loyalist faction.

READ MORE

They originally travelled to Scotland before making their way to Horwich, where she began renting a private house. After her request for a council home was turned down, she began legal action last month. Judge Holman delivered his written judgment yesterday.

The court was told the council had rejected Mrs Adair's application on the basis that she was voluntarily homeless. The violence, or threat of violence, that caused her to leave Belfast was a result of her family's involvement in terrorist activities or serious crime, Bolton Council said.

If it had not been for the feud between loyalist factions that followed Adair's release from prison last year on licence, she would not have been homeless, the court heard. Adair returned to prison because the Government believed he would commit crime.

In May this year, five shots were fired into Mrs Adair's house in Bolton through a back window. No one was injured.

The Ulster Freedom Fighters claimed responsibility for the shooting and warned Mrs Adair and her supporters that any attempt to return to Northern Ireland "would not pass without incident".