Former UVF member denies any paramilitary involvement in riots

PUP leader Billy Hutchinson claims rioters are not acting on behalf of paramilitary groups and that the police must be responsible for stopping violence

Rioters attack police on Springfield Road in Belfast close to Peace Wall interface gates which divide the nationalist and loyalist communities Pic: Getty

It is not the job of loyalist paramilitaries to tell young people in Northern Ireland they shouldn’t get involved in riots, a former Ulster Volunteer Force leader has said.

More than 70 police officers have been injured in the riots that spread across mostly loyalist areas of the North during the last week. Unionist and nationalist politicians in the North have appealed for an end to the violence, and Micheál Martin has spoken to ...