A LEADING loyalist, who is the subject of a death threat by his own paramilitary organisation, issued a death threat against a Portadown mother of three, Belfast Crown Court heard yesterday.
Mr Billy Wright (36), who is defying a death threat from the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), also allegedly threatened the woman's son during the same incident in the West land Road area of Portadown last August.
Mr Wright, from Hartfield Square, Portadown, denies threatening to kill Mrs Gwendoline Reed. He also denies perverting the course of public justice in that he threatened the safety of Ms Reed's son, Mr Stephen Thomas Reed. Both alleged incidents took place on August 10th, 1996.
Crown lawyer Mr Jeffrey Foote QC said the previous night Mrs Reed's daughter Nicola was injured when she attempted to shield her boyfriend Mr Jason Hughes from seven or eight masked men who attacked him with pick axe handles and sledge hammers.
Trial judge Lord Justice McCollum also heard that Ms Reed and another daughter, Leann, have identified two of the alleged attackers.
Two other Portadown men, Mr Trevor George Buchanan (29), of Corcrain Drive and Mr Dale Robert John Weathered (28) from Ranfurley Road, are on trial with Mr Wright. They are denying charges of causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Hughes and assaulting Ms Nicola Reed.
The prosecution claims that the day after Mr Hughes was attacked, as Mr Stephen Reed was getting into a friend's car, Mr Wright pulled up in his car and told him: "You wee bastard. If there's charges pressed I'm coming after you".
The lawyer said Ms Reed then ran from the house telling Mr Wright to leave her son alone to which Mr Wright, pointing his finger at her, allegedly replied: "I'm going to fucking shoot you".
The trial continues today.