A senior loyalist last night (Thursday) denied that the UVF-linked Red Hand Commando had orchestrated protests and rioting against a Catholic prayer service at Carnmoney Cemetery, Co Antrim, earlier this month.
Billy Hutchinson rejected claims from Newtownabbey police commander chief superintendent Brendan McGuigan that the Red Hand Commando (RHC) paramilitary group had been behind the picket.
Up to 200 loyalist protesters had attempted to disrupt the Catholic prayer service taking place in Carnmoney Cemetery on Sunday September 15.
Loyalist protesters jeered Catholic families attending the prayer services and blew whistles while parish priest Fr Dan Whyte was addressing the congregation.
Later a group of 40 loyalists threw bricks and stones on the O'Neills Road before hijacking two cars and setting them on fire.
A 16-year-old youth was later arrested and faces a charge of riotous behaviour.
It later emerged that Fr Whyte had received a loyalist death threat just hours before the service.
Speaking at a meeting of the Newtownabbey district policing partnership on Wednesday, chief superintendent Brendan McGuigan accused the RHC of having orchestrated the protest and rioting which followed.
"What happened on that afternoon was not spontaneous," the Newtownabbey police chief said.
"It had been orchestrated by a paramilitary group and they sent children out to do their work by registering a protest.
"But there were adults in the background and it was clear what was going on."
But the PUP's Billy Hutchinson last night said that, while members of the RHC may have been present at the protest, there had been no official sanction for the trouble from the loyalist grouping.
"The PUP became aware that the RHC was being blamed for what happened at Carnmoney and held a series of meetings with it and the UVF earlier this week to establish what was the truth.
"We were assured at those meetings that while individual members may have been present at the protest no official sanction had come from the leadership of that organisation to orchestrate any trouble.
"I can state publicly that the RHC was not behind what went on."
Mr Hutchinson said that he hopes to meet Fr Whyte in the near future to discuss the crisis at Carnmoney.
