Once he was met from prison by 100 cheering supporters who threw a street party with champagne. But it was a sign of the fall from grace of Northern Ireland's most notorious terrorist, Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair, that when he was released on Monday from his latest stint in jail he was bundled off and flown by military helicopter to Manchester, northwest England, in fear for his life.
Adair, once one of the most dangerous and unpredictable terrorist leaders in the loyalist Ulster Defense Association (UDA), was then driven to the quiet town of Horwich, near Bolton.
He spent the day hiding inside the terrace house rented by his wife, Gina Adair, known as "Mad Bitch." Within hours of his arrival, worried neighbors had put "to let" signs up outside their homes.
Adair's wife and up to 20 of his associates were forced out of Belfast two years ago during a murderous loyalist feud. They settled in Bolton where Adair's crew pushed their way into the local heroin and crack cocaine market, seeing an opening after a local drug baron was shot dead in his bed.
Mrs Adair has been treated for ovarian cancer in Manchester and her husband had vowed to go straight to her side on leaving prison.
But the loyalist paramilitary who once boasted of surviving 15 murder attempts is now a marked man, with countless enemies in Belfast.
Mrs Adair's front door and windows were sprayed with bullets after her arrival in Horwich in 2003 and a bomb was found under the car of an associate in Bolton. Mrs Adair lost her court battle to force Bolton council to provide her with a house and has had to rent from a private landlord.
"Surely he won't settle here. He'd need to bring a bloody big army to protect himself," one local said.
Local people have been advised not to talk to the press, or do so only anonymously.
Adair, 39, a 1.60m bodybuilder once known as "Wee Man," is described by acquaintances as a "manipulative, egotistical maniac."
He was released from Maghaberry prison in Belfast after serving two-thirds of a 16-year sentence for directing acts of terrorism. He had spent the past two years in solitary confinement for his own safety.
First released from the Maze in 1999 under the terms of the Good Friday agreement, he returned to prison twice after leading bitter and bloody feuding between the mainstream UDA and his splinter group on the Shankill Road of Belfast.
His gang's reign of fear in the early 1990s claimed the lives of dozens of Catholics, often chosen at random. Expelled by the UDA, he is now on a death list after he was blamed for the feud killing of the loyalist John Gregg, who was shot dead on his way back from a Glasgow Rangers match in 2003.
Officers from Greater Manchester police met Adair on Monday, warning him against any criminality if he decides to stay in Bolton.
Adair's 19-year-old son Jonathan, known in Bolton as "Mad Pup," is serving a sentence for dealing heroin and crack cocaine. Two other Adair associates were convicted of drug charges in Bolton.
An appeal judge recently reduced Jonathan Adair's sentence, citing the "unusual" strain he has been under all his life. He once endured a punishment shooting said to have been approved by his father.
"I'm not happy," said one local. "When Adair's associates first turned up here, we had drive-by gunmen shooting at a house. I work nearby. Any of us could get caught up in this."
Former associates claim Adair has access to significant amounts of money and could move to Spain with his wife and two youngest children.
Some loyalists in Belfast say Adair is too scared to return to his native city. Alan McCullough, a 21-year-old associate of Adair's, left Bolton and returned to Belfast in 2003 attempting to do a deal for his own protection. He was found shot dead in a shallow grave.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS