Loyal victim's father calls on DUP for backing

A loyalist murder victim's father tonight challenged DUP leaders to give him the same support they have shown Robert McCartney…

A loyalist murder victim's father tonight challenged DUP leaders to give him the same support they have shown Robert McCartney's family.

Raymond McCord made his appeal after the European Parliament overwhelmingly backed the McCartney sisters' bid to bring IRA killers to justice.

The DUP representative at Strasbourg, Jim Alister, supported a resolution calling for an unprecedented use of EU anti-terrorism funds to finance a civil action if police fail to bring prosecutions.

Mr McCord, who blames the Ulster Volunteer Force for killing his son Raymond Jr in north Belfast in 1997, supported the McCartneys' stance.

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But he urged the DUP to use their new political strength to fight for Protestant victims.

Mr McCord said he also spoke for Ann Robb, whose son Andrew was brutally murdered along with David McIlwaine by the UVF near Tandragee, Co Armagh in February 2000.

Hugely impressed by party deputy leader Peter Robinson keeping a pledge he once made to him not to deal with the UVF-aligned Progressive Unionists, Mr McCord said: "All we are looking for is parity of esteem.

"Peter Robinson made a promise to me and kept it. He's the only man in seven and a half years to do that.

"Now I'm asking for him and Jim Alister to meet with UVF victims who haven't had justice."

Allegations by Mr McCord that Special Branch protected an informant involved in his son's murder are being investigated by Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan.

PA