Loyalist hitman runs for his life after UDA squad storms home
Self-confessed UVF killer Paul Beattie has been forced to flee his Lisburn home after a UDA squad turned up to 'do him in' last week.
But Beattie, who has dodged murder bids ever since he left the UVF almost 30 years ago and spent years living in England because of threats, says this time he's 'going nowhere'.
The 56-year-old former assassin – believed to be responsible for a number of sectarian murders in the early 90s – had been settled and living in relative peace in Lisburn's Ballymacash – a loyalist and UDA stronghold – for the last seven years.
The assassin was released in 1999 as part of the Good Friday Agreement having served just four years of a 11-year term for a murder bid.
In a jaw-dropping interview, he told this paper back in 2007 how he joined the UVF's killing machine in the 1990s and how he flew up the ranks because he was prepared to do whatever they asked.
He also went into details about how he scouted out targets and how he and his fellow murder squad pals would go for a pint after a hit.
But last week Beattie says he got out of his Rathvarna Park home 'by the skin of his teeth' when a loyalist gang was spotted arriving at the property.
The smashed windows in his flat
'There was a van load of men in boiler suits who turned up at my house, but luckily I'd seen them in time and my friend managed to get me out the back and into his car and I got away,' says Beattie.
'They were obviously there to do me in. I was told they fired some sort of shots through the windows but I was long gone by then.
'This all started a couple of years ago because I stood up to a couple of UDA men. It started off as insults to me and my son but when I stood up to them things got more serious.'
Our pictures show his windows have been broken by some sort of shot being fired through them – possibly ball bearings.
Paul Beattie
But Paul says he's had enough of what he describes as 'chocolate soldiers' and says he's not leaving the country this time.
'The UDA have made me homeless and they want me out of Northern Ireland but I'm going nowhere,' he says defiantly.
'I think they just want my flat – they want all the flats so they can put their own people in them. It's 2025 and these chocolate soldiers are still on the backs of the community.
'It seems to get more serious when it's bonfire and flag season and they get their loyalist heads on. It's all down to funding they get – that's all they are interested in – money.
'These goons are all about the pound coin – they're only loyalty is to the big pound note.
'I'd been living there without any hassle and then they must have found who I was and about my past in the UVF and that's when the trouble started.
The smashed windows in his flat in the loyalist estate of Ballymacash in Lisburn
'I challenged them and they didn't like that – they told me to f**k off back to Ardoyne. What's really frustrating is they seem to have the community police backing them up.
'I've got a crazy story about the time I was living in Ardoyne but I won't get into that just now – I will soon though.'
Beattie, a native of Sandy Row, was forced out of the area in 2008 after falling out with the UVF, which he had joined at 18.
For a period of time he found himself living in a flat in Ardoyne with another loyalist who had fallen out with the UDA.
Loyalists were suspicious and accused Beattie of buying his safety in Ardoyne by passing on information about his former terror pals to dissident republican gangs – something Beattie always said was 'nonsense' because, having left the UVF when he got out of jail under the Good Friday Agreement, which was 15 years ago at that time, he had no information to give to anyone.
Paul Beattie says he's staying put despite the threats
He was shot three times in the leg and his injuries were so severe he couldn't walk without aid.
He later moved to Scotland where he was involved in a brutal stabbing. It was revealed in court how Beattie in 2009 stabbed a 60-year-old labourer three times in the abdomen and side, leaving him with damage to his liver and stomach.
The attack took place outside a bar in a town near Dumfries after Beattie and the victim had a row and the victim called Beattie 'an Irish pr**k'.
Beattie was ordered to spend six years in jail after he pleaded guilty to assault.
Transferred back to Magilligan in 2012, the former gangster began composing poetry as part of a creative writing programme in the jail before being released.
In 2016 he was labelled as 'stupid' by a judge after claiming he believed the knuckle-duster and extendable baton he smuggled in from Bulgaria were legal.
Loyalist estate of Ballymacash in Lisburn
But it was his exclusive interview with this paper 18 years ago that was truly shocking and led to victims' campaigners demanding action be taken after he admitted he murdered several people – but has not been convicted of any.
'I gave everything I had to the UVF as soon as I joined up,' he told us. 'I did everything they asked of me, and by that I mean everything.
'They repaid me by labelling me a member of the LVF, a drug dealer and then sentencing me to death.
'I fell foul of them because I walked away from them after I was released from jail after the Good Friday Agreement.
'They tortured me to come back and when I told them to f*** off they decided to teach me a lesson. That's the truth.'
Beattie said he joined the UVF when he was 22 after his best friend's brothers were shot and wounded in separate gun attacks.
Within months of swearing allegiance to the UVF, he had worked himself up the ranks, playing a major role in the majority of the South Belfast Brigade's operations.
'I progressed very quickly up the ranks, I was very eager to get into the thick of anything that came up. I put my hand up to anything, whether that was hijacking or getting into a motor and going out to shoot someone. I was up for anything.
'I knew that by getting involved with the UVF I was taking my life in my hands. As soon as I went out on a job I know there was a good chance that I would be killed or jailed.
'I got a 14-year sentence in the end,' he said.
He revealed how he would be handed details of his target and told to memorise the details before the day was out.
He then gave a chilling insight into how he started the task of staking out his target before deciding when to pull the trigger.
'One of the UVF commanders would come to me with a name and an address and a montage of pictures of the target. We were told where the target worked, where he socialised and that.
'We were told to memorise the details and by the end of the day someone collected the information. I don't know where it went after that.
'Afterwards, we'd scout the guy for about three or four weeks until we decided when and where the best place was to take the person out,' he casually recalled.
As soon as the operation was carried out Paul Beattie says he returned to 'normal life' immediately.
'As soon as it was over we went to the bar or straight back home. We just blended back in as if nothing had happened. There would be no mention of it again. We weren't like the likes of 'Mad Dog' Adair and that of his world.'
But Beattie's murderous activities for the UVF in south Belfast finally caught up with him in 1994.
Paul Beattie says he's staying put despite the threats
News in 90 Seconds - August 6th
He and a close friend in the UVF were arrested by the RUC after an attempted murder in west Belfast.
Beattie received a total of 14 years and to this day the former UVF gunman is convinced that he was set up by someone in the organisation to be arrested.
He started his lengthy sentence – 11 years for attempted murder and three for armed robbery – at Belfast's Crumlin Road prison.
However, it wasn't long before he was moved to a new prison and was mixing on the wings with Johnny Adair, LVF godfather Billy Wright and Greysteel killer Torrens Knight in the Maze jail.
He fell out with the UVF when he was released amid claims he was dealing drugs for the LVF and had attempted to murder loyalist Curtis Moorehead – both of which he always denied.
The UDA tried to kill Beattie when a gang burst into his home shooting him a number of times in the legs – leaving him needing to walk with a stick for the rest of his life.
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