An Ulster Unionist Assembly member has claimed responsibility for the killing of a Newry man will be traced back to republican paramilitaries. Danny Kennedy urged the Northern Secretary, Mo Mowlam, to reassess the IRA ceasefire in the light of the killing.
The body of thirty-seven-year-old Paul Downey, from Newry, was found near the village of Belleeks in South Armagh yesterday. Paul Downey's body was found by a local man on a narrow country road around 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon. The body was partially clothed and was wrapped in a bloodstained sheet. Mr. Downey had been wounded in the head, according to police, possibly with a shotgun. Security forces sealed off the area and the body was removed for a post-mortem examination.
It is thought that a gang of masked men seized Mr. Downey as he left this hotel, where he had been drinking with his wife around 1.30am yesterday morning. According to security sources, Mr Downey, who came from Newry, was an associate of a leading drugs dealer Brendan "Speedy" Fegan, who was shot dead at a pub in the town a month ago. Detectives will be examining any possible links between the killings.
Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister, Seamus Mallon, said that he was appalled by the killing.
The body of the man, who was in his thirties, was found partly clothed and wrapped in a bloodstained blanket on an isolated country road. Police say the abducted man was a well-known drug dealer.
