Irish Republican News and Information, 24-28 December 2002, http://irlnet.com/rmlist/ 

TWO KILLED IN BLOODY LOYALIST CHRISTMAS

A Protestant man who died in hospital on Christmas Day after being savagely beaten by loyalists died because his attackers thought he was a Catholic.

David Cupples from east Belfast worked in Girdwood British Army barracks in north Belfast. As he walked to work on Sunday through an interface area in the direction of the nationalist Cliftonville Road, his attackers assumed he was Catholic and gave him the beating from which he later died.

Meanwhile, another man was shot dead in cold blood on Friday as part of the ongoing feud within the unionist paramilitary UDA.

Jonathan Stewart, a nephew of prominent UDA figure Alan McClean, was shot dead by a lone gunman as he stood in the kitchen of a house yesterday morning.

The killings make a grim end to a grim year in the North which has become dominated by the sectarian violence and bloody feuding of unionist paramilitaries.

After working for the British Army for the last five years, Cupples wrongly believed he was safer walking through a loyalist area than a nationalist one. He was attacked in the Cliftonpark Avenue area just minutes after being dropped off on the Crumlin Road at around 7am as he made his way to work.

He received severe head injuries after being beaten around the head with a blunt instrument.

In recent years, approximately one in ten of those killed in sectarian attacks have been Protestants mistaken for Catholics. People of all backgrounds are being warned to maintain heightened vigilance throughout the Christmas period, particularly while the UDA remains in a turbulent state.

The UDA's so-called "mainstream" faction is reported to be in an agitated state following the murder of 22-year-old Jonathan Stewart as part of the group's internal feud.

Although the dead man's relatives insist he had no paramilitary links, it is known that the family was targeted in recent months after his uncle argued with the breakaway faction led by Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair over money.

Mr McClean, a former close associate of the Shankill loyalist, fled his Manor Street home in north Belfast in the summer but returned under the protection of the mainstream UDA. His Manor Street home was later set on fire by Adair's mob.

"Part of the problem is that everyone knows who everyone else is and where they live," one senior loyalist figure is reported to have said.

"Like every feud, you have families and neighbours on opposing sides and when they can't get the big players they'll go for an easy touch who takes a chance visiting a house in a dodgy area."

The feud shows no signs of coming to an end.

The murders bring to 11 the number of paramilitary killings this year. All but one -- the dissident republican killing of British Army worker David Caldwell in August -- have been carried out by loyalists.