A prominent loyalist who fled Belfast at the height of an infighting has been found dead in Scotland.
am ‘Skelly’ McCrory was once known as the sidekick of notorious UDA boss Johnny Adair.
The 57-year-old had been living in Ayr since fleeing the Shankill area during a bloody brawl in the early 2000s.
McCrory was linked to the death of South East Antrim UDA boss John ‘Grug’ Gregg in February 2003.
He was one of the UDA prisoners who met with Secretary of State Mo Mowlam during a tense period in the peace negotiations.
At the time, he was serving a sentence for the attempted murders of leading Republicans Brian Gillen and Martin Lynch, having been arrested in a sting operation in July 1992.
At the time he was the UDA officer in command of Maze Prison.
McCrory was also linked to the murder of Francisco Notarantonio, who was shot dead by the UDA in October 1987.
While in exile, he courted publicity and appeared in an episode of Danny Dyer’s Deadliest Men.
He also became an advocate for gay rights and regularly attended Pride parades in the UK.
In 2015, four men were arrested in Glasgow and charged with conspiring to kill McCrory and Adair.
Charges against one of the defendants were dropped, but the other three, Antoin Duffy, Martin Hughes and Paul Sands, were convicted of the plot on 20 July 2015 and subsequently jailed for a total of 38 years.
The circumstances surrounding McCrory’s death are being investigated by Ayrshire Police.
Both Adair and McCrory fled across the Irish Sea after Adair tried to take control of the UDA when he was released from prison as part of the Good Friday Agreement.
The fallout led to deadly UDA infighting and the pair were forced out of their old Shankill Road stronghold in west Belfast.
Adair eventually settled in the port town of Troon with a new girlfriend, while ex-gunner McCrory moved to Ayrshire.