Burglar James Graham
Victim Bobby Moffett
UVF thug Paul Gray
Terror chief John 'Bunter' Graham
A gun used in the UVF murder of Bobby Moffett was stolen to order from a house in Ballymena.
Two men armed with shotguns were involved in the May 2010 murder.
At least one of the weapons was stolen during a house break-in carried out on the instructions of then UVF Commander in Ballymena Paul Gray.
The raid was carried out by housebreaker James Graham. The tattooed burglar was a close associate of terror boss Gray and was heavily involved in a series of money making scams in the north Antrim area.
Working on Gray’s orders he burgled specially selected houses in the Ballymena area with the intention of stealing cash or legally held weapons.
The Sunday World understands that the Moffett murder weapon was one such gun.
The shotgun was brought to the Shankill the day before Moffett was shot in May 2010.
The 43-year-old was standing on the Shankill Road at lunchtime on May 28 when he was approached by two men. He was blasted in the face from point blank range.
The killing, which was carried out on the orders of UVF bosses John ‘Bunter’ Graham, Joe McGaw and Harry Stockman, prompted outrage in the loyalist heartland.
Despite a campaign of intimidation from the UVF, thousands lined the Shankill Road as the dead man’s funeral got under way.
The terror group continues to target the Moffett family with a series of houses attacked and family members beaten.
According to well-placed loyalist sources James Graham was on the Shankill the day Moffett was killed, tasked with getting rid of the weapons, but police later seized two shotguns in a house raid on the Shankill.
The house breaker is understood to be close to UVF chief John Bunter Graham and is believed to have blown the whistle on his former boss in Ballymena.
Paul Gray and his conman sidekick Darren ‘Chink’ O Neill were stood down earlier this month after an internal UVF investigation revealed how they had been busy lining their own pockets in a series of scams.
James Graham and Gray had a major fallout after the burglar discovered his boss was not passing cash on to the UVF leadership on the Shankill.
Concerned he would be targeted he became whistleblower.
As revealed in the Sunday World last week it is thought Gray and O’Neill have stashed a £250,000 fortune in banks south of the border. The pair have been courtmartialled and ordered to repay the cash.
Meanwhile the Moffett family are continuing their fight for justice. In November the dead man’s sister cleared the first stage in her High Court battle to secure disclosure of a full report on the shooting.
She is mounting a legal challenge to have the full details of an Independent Monitoring Commission report into the state of the paramilitary ceasefires released.
So far only an edited version has been supplied for the purposes of holding an inquest.
Irene Owens, is seeking a judicial review which would compel the Secretary of State to release the dossier in full.
Mr Justice Treacy granted leave to seek a judicial review, and the case is listed to heard in March.
At that stage the IMC’s findings are expected to be explored in more detail.
In its report the international body described the killing as a public execution.
It concluded that Mr Moffett was murdered to stop his perceived flouting of UVF authority, and to send a message to the organisation and the community that this authority was not to be challenged.