A leading loyalist politician was today among seven people being questioned by police in Northern Ireland investigating the brutal murder of a schoolboy.
Billy Hutchinson, a former Stormont Assembly member and a leading member of the Progressive Unionist Party, was among those detained over the killing of Thomas Devlin over two years ago.
Party leader Dawn Purvis said: "I was absolutely gobsmacked at his arrest. But it is my understanding that he has not been arrested in relation to the killing of Thomas Devlin but that he has been arrested in respect of things he has been saying recently."
Ms Purvis said she found the arrest of her party colleague questionable. "If the police wanted to talk to him why didn't they go to talk to him at the community house, why did they feel the need to arrest him?"
Mr Hutchinson, a former Ulster Volunteer Force prisoner, is a community worker in the Mount Vernon area of North Belfast where police believe the killer of the schoolboy lives.
He played a leading role earlier this year in the UVF's decision to stand down from paramilitary activity.
When Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was criticised - because of the murder - for providing funding for community work in the loyalist area earlier this year, Mr Hutchinson spoke out saying the whole community should not be demonised because of the killing.
Thomas Devlin (15) was stabbed to death over two years ago as he walked home with friends after buying sweets at a filling station.
Three men and a woman were detained in early morning arrests in the north of the city by detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Crime Operations Unit.
Another man and two women were already being questioned about the murder after being arrested at various times yesterday. Thomas was stabbed to death close to his north Belfast home in August 2005.
He was knifed up to five times in the back as he walked back along Somerton Road from the garage. One of his friends was also injured.
The arrests have centred around Mount Vernon and the neighbouring Whitewell district. Police have seized items during searches of a property in the Ross Court complex on Monday.