Mo Courtney
Mo Courtney | |
---|---|
Birth name | William Samuel Courtney |
Born | Belfast, Northern Ireland | 8 July 1963
Allegiance | Ulster Defence Association (UDA) |
Rank | Commander |
Unit | C Company, 2nd Battalion Shankill Road, West Belfast Brigade |
Conflict | The Troubles |
William Samuel "Mo" Courtney (born 8 July 1963)[1] is a former Ulster Defence Association (UDA) activist. He was a leading figure in Johnny Adair's C Company, one of the most active sections of the UDA, before later falling out with Adair and serving as West Belfast brigadier.
Early years
Courtney was born in Belfast in July 1963.[2]
In the late 1970s and early 1980s Courtney was part in a gang of teenagers from
Courtney had a reputation as something of a petty thief and even suffered a
UDA activity
Courtney was soon sent out as a gunman and was allegedly active in killing by around 1987.
During the late 1980s, Courtney was part of a movement within the UDA that became frustrated with the directions being taken by the UDA leadership. He argued that too little was being done by the movement in terms of killing republicans as the leaders were too happy to sit back and become rich from extortion and racketeering. Courtney was soon involved in conspiracies to overthrow the UDA leadership.[10] These however came to nothing as the fallout from the Stevens Inquiries saw the existing leadership swept aside. For his part, Courtney would go on to become part of the new leadership that emerged in the 1990s around Johnny Adair.[8]
Courtney was jailed in 1991 for robbery, theft and hijacking, and soon became a leading figure within the
He gained a reputation as a fearsome fighter and took a leading role in the battles with the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) during the internecine loyalist feud between Adair's men and the UVF in 2000.[9] On 19 August 2000 when the feud broke out fully during the "loyalist day of culture" held on the Shankill Road, Courtney was identified as one of three UDA gunmen who shot at UVF members who had barricaded themselves in the "Rex Bar". Three people were injured in the gun attack with others wounded from a series of physical attacks by C Company members.[12] Adair was returned to prison as the feud escalated and there he became close to the Shoukri brothers, leading figures in the North Belfast UDA. Courtney, along with other Adair cohorts such as Gary "Smickers" Smyth, teamed up the Shoukris whilst Adair was imprisoned and ran a lucrative drug dealing operation together.[13]
In the 1990s he was the subject on an interview by British journalist Peter Taylor for his televised documentary and book Loyalists. During the interview he recounted his time as a gunman in the late 1980s when he was "on the go seven days a week" and "couldn't even afford a pint".[10]
Return to UDA mainstream
In late 2002 when Adair and his ally
Following the killing of popular UDA man
Alan McCullough
Courtney regained his influence within the UDA and replaced
Courtney, along with
Following his release, the Court of Appeal passed judgement that his acquittal had been unsound and ordered a retrial. Not long after this, in January 2007, Courtney was the victim of a savage attack on the Shankill Road by an old UVF rival.[25]
At the retrial Courtney was given an eight-year prison sentence after confessing to
Subsequent activity
Courtney has continued to be linked to the Finucane and in 2007, whilst serving his sentence for his involvement in McCullough's death, he was named as one of the two gunmen to kill Finucane in an affidavit filed in a Belfast court by Metropolitan Police officer Detective Chief Inspector Graham Taylor, who was at the time heading the investigation into the killing.[28]
Courtney was released from prison and returned to his home in the Glencairn area to the north of the Shankill. However, in 2013 Courtney was convicted of the assault of Tracey Coulter at the offices of the Lower Shankill Community Association. According to court reports Coulter had gone to the offices to speak to Courtney's associates about the death of her cousin, a drug-user, a week earlier. During Coulter's visit she had become embroiled in an argument with an unnamed man when Courtney intervened and head-butted her.[29][30] Courtney is due to be sentenced in January 2014. Coulter, who is the daughter of Jackie Coulter (a close associate of Adair's who was killed in the 2002 feud with the UVF), had her house burnt down in an arson attack soon after Courtney's conviction. She publicly accused the UDA of being behind the attack.[31] In December 2013 Courtney was again brought before the courts, to face charges of harassing Coulter in the aftermath of his previous conviction, as well as threatening to kill campaigner Raymond McCord, who was with Courtney during the alleged incident.[32] Courtney was given a suspended prison sentence of four months and ordered to pay Coulter £500 for the incident.[33] He was subsequently also found guilty of threatening to kill McCord, although a similar charge relating to Coulter was dismissed.[34]
North Belfast feud
Beginning in 2013 and continuing into the following year, a
Courtney was widely reported as one of the leading figures in the conspiracy and in early 2014 UDA leaders approached Matt Kincaid, offering him the chance to re-integrate the West Belfast Brigade with the wider UDA if he expelled Courtney and Jim Spence. Kincaid rejected the proposal however, opting instead to support Courtney and Spence.[36] In September 2014 it was reported in the Belfast Telegraph that Bunting, McDonald and Birch, as well as the head of the Londonderry and North Antrim Brigade had met to discuss the feud as well as the schism with the West Belfast Brigade. According to the report they agreed that West Belfast Brigade members loyal to the wider UDA should establish a new command structure for the brigade which would then take the lead in ousting the three men they identified as the biggest trouble-makers, namely Courtney, Spence and Eric McKee from their existing leadership positions. It was also stated that the West Belfast breakaway leaders had recruited Jimbo Simpson, a former North Belfast brigadier driven out of Northern Ireland over a decade earlier, and were seeking to restore him to his former role.[37]
References
- ^ Full name and date of birth are taken from police mugshots as pictured in David Lister & Hugh Jordan, Mad Dog: The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and 'C' Company, Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 2004
- ^ a b c David Lister & Hugh Jordan, Mad Dog: The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and 'C' Company, Mainstream, 2004, p. 56
- ^ Lister & Jordan, Mad Dog, pp. 29–30
- ^ Lister & Jordan, Mad Dog, pp. 47–48
- ^ Lister & Jordan, Mad Dog, p. 51
- ^ Lister & Jordan, Mad Dog, p. 55
- ^ Lister & Jordan, Mad Dog, p. 59
- ^ a b Peter Taylor, Loyalists, Bloomsbury, 2000, p. 204
- ^ a b Henry McDonald & Jim Cusack, UDA – Inside the Heart of Loyalist Terrorr, Penguin Ireland, 2004, p. 377
- ^ a b Taylor, Loyalists, pp. 204–205
- ^ Adair's lieutenant shifts sides to UDA
- ^ Lister & Jordan, Mad Dog, pp. 289–290
- ^ Lister & Jordan, Mad Dog, p. 309
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 378
- ^ Lister & Jordan, Mad Dog, p. 329
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 384
- ^ Lister & Jordan, Mad Dog, p. 328
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 388
- ^ a b Lister & Jordan, Mad Dog, p. 335
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 393
- ^ McDonald & Cusack, UDA, p. 394
- ^ "Finucane suspect charged over UDA feud killing". The Guardian. 15 June 2003. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021.
- ^ bbc.co.uk
- ^ Loyalist cleared on murder charge
- ^ Mo Attacked
- ^ Loyalist admits feud manslaughter
- ^ Courtney is a tout: Victim's mother
- ^ Courtney 'killed Finucane'
- ^ Loyalist William 'Mo' Courtney guilty of head-butting woman during drugs confrontation
- ^ Loyalist William 'Mo' Courtney guilty of head-butting woman
- ^ Tracey Coulter says UDA behind 'arson attack' on her Belfast home
- ^ William 'Mo' Courtney denies threat charges
- ^ Loyalist William 'Mo' Courtney gets suspended sentence for headbutt
- ^ William 'Mo' Courtney convicted on threat to kill charge
- ^ a b UDA feud escalates over bid to oust north Belfast 'brigadier' John Bunting
- ^ Barnes, Ciaran (2 February 2014). "UDA Chiefs' Unity Talks Are a Flop". Belfast Telegraph (subscription required). Archived from the original on 28 March 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
- ^ Barnes, Ciaran (14 September 2014). "UDA Call an 'AGM' to End Faction Feuds". Belfast Telegraph (subscription required). Archived from the original on 28 March 2015. Retrieved 18 September 2014.