Ex-UDA boss Jim Gray buried in Belfast

Jim Gray Snr (centre) walks behind the hearse carrying the coffin of his son, former loyalist leader Jim Gray in East Belfast…

Jim Gray Snr (centre) walks behind the hearse carrying the coffin of his son, former loyalist leader Jim Gray in East Belfast

Murdered ex-paramilitary boss Jim Gray was buried this morning.

The flamboyant loyalist (47) - who once headed an empire of drugs, prostitution and sectarian killings - was denied the showpiece funeral usually granted to Northern Ireland's terrorist leaders.

A week after the former Ulster Defence Association commander was gunned down outside his father's home in south east Belfast, no members of the outlawed organisation showed up to pay any final respects.

Instead, 14 men led by Gray 's father, Jim Senior, walked behind a single hearse from the scene of the shooting.

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Gray was assassinated by the UDA just months after being deposed as one of its inner council of six so-called brigadiers.

The organisation kicked him out because his lavish lifestyle had become an embarrassment even by its own criminal standards, amid attempts to clean up its image.

With Gray facing money-laundering charges, his ex-associates also feared he was about to inform on them as part of a deal to secure a reduced sentence.

He was murdered while out on bail living at his father's home in the Clara Wood estate. A gunman shot him up to five times in the back as he shifted weightlifting equipment from the boot of a car.

Men trusted by Gray are suspected to have been involved in the assassination plot. Four men and two women have been questioned about the murder but released without charge.

After a short service inside the modest semi-detached house today, relatives of the former loyalist chief, famed for his bleached blonde hair, year-round tan and outlandish dress sense, made the short trip to Roselawn Cemetery.

Gray was buried in the same plot as his 19-year-old son Jonathan (also known as JJ), who died of a drug overdose while on holiday in Thailand with his father.

A group of men, who did not attend the service, turned up at the graveside. The men, who appeared to remain loyal to their former boss, warned off any outsiders who came too close to the burial site.

PA