Four arrested in Northern Ireland over paramilitary murders

Three men were shot dead in 1994 and these arrests are part of an operation investigating a series of murders and crimes by the UVF in Belfast.

FOUR MEN HAVE been arrested over the murder of 55-year-old Sean McParland in 1994.

McParland was shot in north Belfast in February that year while babysitting. He died one week later.

Detectives from the PSNI Serious Crime Branch this morning arrested three suspects aged 40, 47 and 51 and brought them for questioning in Antrim police station. A number of properties in north Belfast were also searched.

A fourth suspect, aged 42, was also arrested in Antrim this afternoon.

Police said that the 47-year-old arrested this morning is also being questioned about the murders of Gary Convie and Eamon Fox who were sitting in a car in 1994 when a gunman opened fire on them with a submachine gun.

Today’s arrests are part of ‘Operation Stafford’, an investigation into a serious of murders and other serious crimes by the UVF in north Belfast.

Read: Man shot in his legs and arm in front room of house>

Read: On-the-run letters scheme slammed as ‘secret postal service for the IRA’>

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