Paramilitary-linked murders: this year's victims

January 30th: IRA members murdered Robert McCartney after a dispute in Magennis's pub in Belfast.

January 30th: IRA members murdered Robert McCartney after a dispute in Magennis's pub in Belfast.

March: Stephen Nelson (55), from east Belfast, died as a result of injuries he received when loyalists beat him up the previous September. He had tried to stop them dealing in drugs at a hotel on the outskirts of north Belfast where he worked.

July 1st: Jameson Lockhart (25), from east Belfast, was shot dead by the UVF outside the Avenue Bar, which Jim Gray formerly owned on the Newtownards Road in Belfast, marking the re-eruption of the UVF-LVF feud.

July 11th: Craig McCausland (20), from the Dhu Varren estate in Belfast, was shot dead by the UVF. His family insisted he had no LVF connections.

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July 30th: Stephen Paul (19), from Wheatfield Crescent, Belfast, was shot dead at his home by the UVF in the continuing feud.

August 10th: 15-year-old Thomas Devlin from Somerton Road, Belfast, was set upon and stabbed to death as he walked to his home with friends after buying soft drinks and sweets in a nearby garage. No motive was established for the murder of the Catholic teenager, although police say one line of inquiry is that he was killed in a loyalist sectarian attack.

August 15th: Mick Green (42), from Ballysillan in north Belfast, was shot dead at close range by two UVF gunmen on a motorcycle as he arrived to work at Gilpin's furniture store on Sandy Row in south Belfast. It was part of the LVF-UVF feud.

Tuesday night: Jim Gray (right) was murdered. The UDA was blamed.

Gerry Moriarty

Gerry Moriarty

Gerry Moriarty is the former Northern editor of The Irish Times