Sharon O'Neill, Irish News, 26.11.2003
A SECTARIAN motive is the main line of inquiry in the suspected loyalist murder of Catholic James McMahon. Chief Constable Hugh Orde confirmed the focus of the probe yesterday - as the distraught mother of the 21-year-old laid her son to rest.
Mr McMahon died last Friday after being savagely beaten by a three-strong masked gang the previous evening near his Lisburn home.
Police were initially cautious about the motive behind the killing. But yesterday, speaking around the time of the victim's funeral, Mr Orde confirmed a sectarian motive was being investigated and that loyalist paramilitaries were under suspicion.
"It is the main line of inquiry," he said. "We are looking at loyalist paramilitary groups as possible suspects and we are taking that line of inquiry very seriously."
The chief constable said the murder of Mr McMahon, who had just started a new job with Coca-Cola before he was killed, was one of the most brutal he had come across.
"A man was going about his ordinary business, was ambushed and beaten to death with bats. It is the tough end of extreme brutality – mindless violence.''
The police implication of loyalist involvement appears to confirm that Mr McMahon's murder represented the first fatal attack on a Catholic by loyalists since the LVF killing of teenager Gerard Lawlor almost 16 months ago.
The young man's murder came four days after loyalists armed with hammers and machetes targeted Catholic Paul Denvir as he made his way home after a night out at a pub on the outskirts of north Belfast. He suffered serious facial injuries in the attempted murder including the loss of an eye.
Mr Orde pledged to do all in his power to hunt down Mr McMahon's killers and also defended criticism of the police's record on handling similar cases.
"Our policing record on murders is good and it is getting better," he said. "We are determined to bring those to justice who committed the crime and that is exactly what my officers are determined to do in this case. "I have a team of detectives working on that case, dedicated to that case. "Like any modern murder we are bound by guidelines about how we investigate them, we are doing our best to comply with all those guidelines."
Loyalist paramilitaries have also been blamed for the murder of welder John Allen in Ballyclare, Co Antrim, on November 8. His father has blamed the UVF for the killing.
Meanwhile, the chief constable also warned of a risk of further dissident republican attacks surrounding today's assembly elections. This came after two police officers and a member of the public narrowly escaped serious injury when a device exploded in Strabane. In a separate incident shots were fired at a police station in Armagh. No-one was injured.