Davy Payne
H. David "Davy" Payne (c. 1949 – March 2003) was a senior Northern Irish loyalist and a high-ranking member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) during the Troubles, serving as brigadier of the North Belfast Brigade.
[3] As the civil disorder, rioting, and attacks carried out by the Provisional IRA escalated, many Ulster Protestants felt increasingly under threat, and the groups were created as a means of defending the status quo.
[6][7] Payne was described as the UDA's most violent and feared killer,[8] and was also a member of the Orange Order, belonging to the Old Boyne Island Heroes Lodge.
[10] According to author Ian Wood, Payne was addicted to the use of knives and sadistically tortured his victims before killing them[11] this earned him the nickname of "The Psychopath".
Its former leader, the West Belfast brigadier Charles Harding Smith, argued with Payne, and then ordered him off the Shankill Road on account of the latter's support of his rival, Andy Tyrie.
[12] Although Tyrie was overall commander of the UDA, brigadiers in the organisation enjoyed a large degree of autonomy and regarded their own territory as "their personal fiefdoms".
[12]On 21 July 1972, Payne, along with some of his UDA associates, allegedly carried out the double killing of Rosemary McCartney, a young Catholic singer from West Belfast, and her boyfriend, Patrick O'Neill.
The couple had been stopped at a UDA roadblock and taken to one of the "romper rooms" for a "grilling" (interrogation) which was presided over by Payne, who like his companions, wore a mask.
[10] In June 1973, Payne reportedly took part in the double killing of Social Democratic and Labour Party Senator Paddy Wilson and his companion, Irene Andrews, a Protestant.
[citation needed] RUC Special Patrol Group (SPG) officer John Weir alleged that Payne had been involved in the Dublin car bombings on 17 May 1974 in which 26 people in three city-centre explosions were killed.
These initiatives, many of which were of a cross-community nature, briefly saw Payne held up as an example of a reformed character and he was praised by the Peace People and invited to speak in Dublin.
[17] However, rather than contest the allegations Payne closed down his operations and, having rebuilt his relationship with Tyrie, accepted his invitation to return as North Belfast Brigadier.
Tyrie reportedly worried that the Brigade was making no money and also feared a small group of members who were carrying out a series of sectarian murders under their own steam and felt that Payne could restore order to the area.
[8] The UDA also accused him of complicity in the assassination of South Belfast brigadier John McMichael, who was blown up in a booby-trap car bomb planted by the IRA outside his Lisburn home on 22 December 1987.
[19] The load consisted of 90 Browning pistols, 161 AK-47s, 250 grenades, 6 RPG 7'S, 184 magazines and 11,000 rounds of ammunition, along with 200 lbs of deadly lebanese semtex.
3 UFF gunmen fired AK47s and 3 young members of the UYM used handguns over his coffin outside his home in proper UDA military style.
