A west Belfast republican believed to be involved in the IRA killing of Shankill Butcher Lenny Murphy has died.
Gerard ‘Hucker’ Moyna, a former republican prisoner, is understood to have died on Saturday after a fall at his home in the Bombay Street area.
A former member of the IRA, he has been linked to several killings, including that of Murphy in November 1982.
The notorious loyalist ran UVF’s Shankill Butchers murder gang, which regularly kidnapped and tortured its Catholic victims before they were stabbed to death.
Murphy was later shot dead by the IRA.
Mr Moyna later left the IRA and joined the Irish People’s Liberation Organisation (IPLO), a breakaway INLA grouping, and was linked to the 1992 killing of leading IPLO figure Jimmy Brown during an internal feud.
It was later reported that Mr Brown had travelled to Belfast to try and end the feud when he was shot dead in the Lower Falls area.
He has been linked by reports to other killings and is said to have lost three fingers when a Continuity IRA bomb exploded prematurely in 1997.
