Billy Elliot (RHC)

William Elliot (c. 1964 – 28 September 1995) was a Northern Irish loyalist and a leading member of the Red Hand Commando (RHC) paramilitary organisation.

He fled Northern Ireland after being implicated in the brutal 1994 murder of an epileptic Protestant woman, Margaret Wright, who was beaten and shot inside a south Belfast loyalist bandhall in the mistaken belief that she was a Catholic or informant for the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).

[2][5][6] The 31-year-old woman from Forthriver Park, Glencairn estate had been inside the Ulster loyalist "Bad Bet" bandhall in Meridi Street (off the Donegall Road in the Village) where there was an all-night drink, drugs and rave music party in progress.

Wright had asked certain questions which led Elliot to believe she was a Catholic or an informant for the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Drugs Squad.

Wright, an epileptic,[6] was ordered to strip to her underpants; she was then gagged, hooded, kicked and savagely beaten by the two men which included her body being crushed in the lengthy attack.

[8] Rules later told the RUC that he was summoned inside the storeroom where he found Elliot squatting beside Wright, who was lying on the floor with her bloodied head raised over a bucket.

[9] Six days later, Ian Hamilton was shot dead on a football pitch adjacent to a primary school in the Shankill Road area by members of the UVF's "Internal Security Unit" as punishment for his role in the killing.

[1][6] He returned to Northern Ireland some time after the Combined Loyalist Military Command ceasefire of 1994, but avoided his old haunts and settled in rural Cloughy instead.

Elliot was fatally shot at close range by RHC gunmen as he was getting into his car after leaving a friend's house in Primacy Park, Bangor, County Down on 28 September 1995.

[2] Several people were arrested and brought to trial for their involvement in Wright's murder and the RHC leader ordered them to plead guilty or face being killed, either in jail or on the outside.