"The murder of John Slane in West Belfast tonight was the work of loyalist paramilitaries.

"In recent months the IRSP have been attempting to flag up the resumption of loyalist attacks. Last week a UVF death list was recovered from a house not 800 yards from the scene of tonight's murder. We believed such attacks to be imminent and gave warnings that the media chose to ignore.

"Undoubtedly most of those who condemnation this foul deed will, in the same breathe, excuse this murder through pointing at IRA violence as the rationale behind it. Loyalists have never needed republican actions to butcher Catholics.