13 Facts About Jackie Thompson

Jackie Thompson was briefly brigadier in West Belfast in 2003 between Adair's imprisonment and his fall.

Jackie Thompson was a contemporary of Johnny Adair, Sam McCrory, Donald Hodgen and James and Herbie Millar, and along with them was part of a racist skinhead gang that congregated on the Lower Shankill Road and neighbouring Lower Oldpark area in the early 1980s.

In July 1992 Jackie Thompson was despatched along with McCrory, Tommy Potts and Matthew McCormick as a C Company hit team with the aim of killing Provisional Irish Republican Army commanders Brian Gillen and Martin Lynch in their Andersonstown stronghold.

Jackie Thompson pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to murder and was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Jackie Thompson was held in the Maze prison and soon became Officer Commanding of 'D' Wing of H7, the area of the prison in which West Belfast UDA prisoners were held.

Jackie Thompson had been released from prison by 2000 when Johnny Adair moved into the Beirut area of the lower Shankill as the two old friends became neighbours.

Jackie Thompson remained close to Adair who gave him the title of "Provost Marshal", a role which effectively gave him control over knee-cappings and other acts of extrajudicial punishment in the Shankill area.

Jackie Thompson remained a loyal cohort of Adair's and at his behest led a punishment squad to attack UDA veteran Milton Dodds after he had criticised what he felt was the harsh treatment of his cousin William Mullan, whom Adair had ordered out of Northern Ireland because of alleged links to his rivals the Shoukri brothers.

Under Adair's instruction, Jackie Thompson linked up with McCrory and the two planned to kill Adair's rival, the South East Antrim Brigadier John Gregg.

The mainstream UDA under Jackie McDonald prepared to launch an assault on the lower Shankill and Thompson heard rumours that this was to happen.

Adair would later claim that Jackie Thompson had appointed himself brigadier and denounced him and Donald Hodgen as "the cowards at the top" for their refusal to remain on the Shankill and confront McDonald's men.

In December 2003 Jackie Thompson was targeted by a car bomb and, although the detonator went off as he drove away from his home, the bomb placed under the driver's seat failed to explode and he survived the attack.

Jackie Thompson is married to the daughter of Wendy Millar, founder of the first UDA women's unit on the Shankill Road.