Editing Johnny Adair (section)

===2002===
On 15 May 2002, Adair was released from prison again. Outside the prison he was greeted by up to 300 of his supporters.<ref name="guardian"/> Once free, he was a key part of an effort to forge stronger ties between the UDA and the LVF, a small breakaway faction of the UVF founded in 1996 by Billy Wright and following his killing, commanded by [[Mark Fulton (loyalist)|Mark "Swinger" Fulton]], with whom Adair was on good terms. Fulton had been in Maghaberry since December 2001. The most open declaration of this alliance was a joint mural depicting Adair's UDA "C company" and the LVF. Other elements in the UDA strongly resisted these movements, which they saw as an attempt by Adair to win external support in a bid to take over the leadership of the UDA. Some UDA members disliked his overt association with the drugs trade, which the LVF were even more heavily involved with.{{citation needed|date=October 2011}} For his part Adair controlled a block of flats in his Lower Shankill stronghold from which he and his allies dealt drugs.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, pp. 391–92</ref>

Adair also sought to work closely with Belfast-based dissidents such as [[Frankie Curry]] and [[Jackie Mahood]], provoking further anger from the UVF.<ref>Lister & Jordan, p. 307</ref> Another [[loyalist feud]] erupted, and ended with several men dead and scores evicted from their homes. The [[Rathcoole (Belfast)|Rathcoole]] home of long-standing UDA member [[Sammy Duddy]] was raked by gunfire; although Duddy was not injured in the shooting attack, his pet [[chihuahua (dog)|chihuahua]] Bambi was fatally wounded by shots fired through the front door by masked gunmen from Adair's C Company. Adair later admitted in an interview he gave for journalist [[Suzanne Breen]] that Duddy never got over the loss of Bambi.<ref name="breen">Suzanne Breen. "At home with Johnny Adair". ''Sunday Tribune'', 1 April 2007.</ref>

On 13 September 2002, [[Jim Gray (UDA member)|Jim Gray]] – the head of the UDA in East Belfast and an archrival of Adair – was shot in the face by Adair's supporters.<ref name="doris">Angelique Chrisafis.[https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/oct/12/northernireland.ukcrime "The death of Doris Day"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221112928/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/oct/12/northernireland.ukcrime |date=21 December 2016 }}, Guardian.co.uk, 12 October 2005; retrieved 17 June 2011.</ref> The shooting was described by the police as "loosely related" to the death of Stephen Warnock, an LVF leader, as part of a loyalist feud.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4311130.stm "Top loyalist murdered on doorstep"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019003837/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4311130.stm |date=19 October 2012 }}, bbc.co.uk; accessed 28 December 2015.</ref>

Adair had been spreading rumours that Gray and [[John Gregg (UDA)|John Gregg]], head of the [[UDA South East Antrim Brigade]], were both to be stood down as part of his attempts to take full control of the UDA.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, p. 368</ref> As part of this campaign Adair had visited Warnock's family and told them that Gray had been involved in their relative's death, even though he was aware that it had actually been carried out by a hired [[Red Hand Commando]] (RHC) gunman after Warnock refused to pay a drug debt to a North Down businessman. As a result, Gray was shot by a lone gunman after he left the Warnock home, where he had been paying his respects to the deceased.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, pp. 371–72</ref>

====Expulsion from the UDA====
On 20 September 2002, Adair was summoned to an Inner Council meeting held in [[Sandy Row]] where there was a showdown between him and the other brigadiers, including Gray. Fearing an ambush, Adair had his allies "Fat" Jackie Thompson and [[James Millar (loyalist)|James "Sham" Millar]] smuggle a pistol for him to the meeting. Five days later, Adair was expelled from the UDA for treason along with close associate John White. Adair's response to the expulsion was "Fuck them uns" and declared the West Belfast Brigade a separate organisation from the mainstream UDA.<ref name="lister321">Lister & Jordan, p. 321</ref> He even erected "West Belfast UDA – Business as Usual" banners on the Shankill Road.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, pp. 374–75</ref> By this point Adair had even lost the support of the [[Shoukri brothers]], his proteges in north Belfast who had been amongst his closest allies outside of his own area but who decided to side with the mainstream UDA in this dispute.<ref name="lister321"/> There were attempts on Adair's and White's lives.

Adair returned to prison in January 2003, when his early release licence was revoked by Secretary of State for Northern Ireland [[Paul Murphy, Baron Murphy of Torfaen|Paul Murphy]] on grounds of engaging in unlawful activity. He appointed "Fat" Jackie Thompson as his replacement as Brigadier.<ref>Lister & Jordan, p. 327</ref> On 1 February 2003, UDA divisional leader John Gregg was shot dead along with another UDA member, Robert "Rab" Carson, on returning from a [[Rangers F.C.|Rangers FC]] match in Glasgow. The killing was widely blamed on Adair's C Company – Gregg was one of those who had organised the expulsion of Adair from the UDA. Among the mainstream UDA, a powerful faction of Adair opponents quickly formed under the leadership of South Belfast brigadier [[Jackie McDonald]]. In the early hours of 6 February (five days after Gregg's shooting and just hours before his funeral was due to take place), about twenty Adair supporters, including White and Adair's wife, fled their homes for Scotland after 100 heavily armed men from the mainstream UDA invaded Adair's stronghold, forcing them to quit Northern Ireland.<ref>McDonald & Cusack, p. 386</ref>