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James Reid
Top UVF hood Jamsey Reid pleaded to his East Belfast boss, Stephen ‘Ugly Doris’ Matthews, yesterday: “Please give me guns”.
Convicted armed robber and serial criminal Reid wants to spark another bloody internecine loyalist feud.
But this time it’s internal – UVF versus UVF.
And it’s because an ‘old time’ UVF man went hunting for Reid.
He went to Reid’s own door in the Ballybeen estate in Belfast. He wanted to offer Reid – who we once pictured dressed up as ‘Dangermouse’ – a ‘free dig’.
Reid wasn’t there but he now knows that the UVF man is hunting him.
The former UVF commander in East Belfast, who was deposed in an internal coup orchestrated by ‘Ugly Doris’ and his hood henchmen, had put the windows in the Ballybeen home of a relative close to Reid.
According to veteran loyalist sources in the east of the city, ‘Reid hadn’t the balls’ to take on the old-timer face-to-face.
But a UVF squad of Reid’s close allies went and gave the old-timer a bad beating.
That’s why he is now hunting for Reid.
And Reid has gone running looking for guns to protect himself.
Last night, sources in East Belfast said a feud between two factions of the UVF – the ‘new’ and the ‘old’ – is about to boil over.
There are already two distinct UVF camps in the east of the city.
Matthews’ mob operate from one pub close to Ugly Doris’s home.
The ‘old timers’ are based in another
pub operated by a once-respected UVF commander who is also not a fan of ‘Ugly Doris’ and his team.
As has been proved recently, in spite of decommissioning, the UVF in East Belfast still has access to weapons.
That was proven in the vile shooting and wounding of Jemma McGrath, the one-time schoolgirl mistress of UVF crimelord Stephen Matthews.
And to add to the potent, and potentially explosive mix, in the east of the city, the UDA is also in a ‘Mexican stand-off’ with Matthews’ mob.
Memories in both paraMafia mobs are still fresh of a huge battle between the two factions on the Beersbridge Road.
Up to 200 men were embroiled in the street battle then which left one senior UDA man with brain damage.
There was also a big bust-up between the UVF and UDA at a wedding reception in a social club in the east end over the past couple of weeks.
That resulted in one UVF-affiliated flute band being told that they were ‘not welcome’ at a big band parade on the Newtownards Road.
And tensions between the UVF and the UDA over there have ‘really hit a sour note’ since, according to our sources.
Meanwhile, career criminal Reid –- recently banged up for armed robbery, but not out of jail – has been revealed by the Sunday World as a serial sue merchant.
Two weeks ago we exposed Reid as having sued the Housing Executive four times – claiming he fell down the same flight of stairs on each occasion.
He trousered £20,000 for ‘personal injury’ in the claims.
Now his row with the former UVF commander has turned both ‘personal’ and poisonous. And Reid was running around looking for guns yesterday.
“If he gets them, and uses them, it will spark another bloody loyalist feud,” said one source.