Davy Payne

Who was Davy Payne?

H. David "Davy" Payne was a senior Northern Irish loyalist and a high-ranking member of the Ulster Defence Association during the Troubles, serving as brigadier of the North Belfast Brigade. He was second-in-command of the Shankill Road brigade of the Ulster Freedom Fighters, which was the "cover name" of the militant branch of the UDA. The group was responsible for a series of abductions and brutal killings of random Catholic men and women in the early 1970s.

He was arrested after being stopped at a Royal Ulster Constabulary checkpoint while driving the "scout" car for his UDA colleagues whose cars' boots contained large caches of weapons imported from Lebanon. He was convicted and sentenced to 19 years in prison.