The Red Hand Defenders group, which has admitted the random sectarian murder of Mr Brian Service in north Belfast at the weekend is now believed to be led by a man with a considerable history of violence who seems bent on undermining the political process in the North.
The man, who is in his 40s, has had a varied and bloody career in loyalist paramilitarism. He has served two major terms of imprisonment during the 1970s and 1980s and was associated with two loyalist paramilitary organisations, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Red Hand Commandos (RHC).
The name of the new group - the Red Hand Defenders - is a simple amalgam of the two groups with which he was previously associated.
He was, most recently, a leading figure in the Red Hand Commandos, a small semi-independent group which operated under the wing of the larger loyalist group the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
However, the RHC has been officially on ceasefire along with the main loyalist paramilitaries since October 1995.
The RHC has had a chequered career, being involved in a number of assassinations during the 1970s and 1980s, but largely fading from sight by the mid-1990s. By that time its membership had descended into a collection of hard-drinking and drug-taking ex-paramilitaries who spent much of their time organising rave dances in loyalist areas of Belfast and north Co Down.
At one of these affairs on the night of April 5th, 1994, a Protestant woman, Ms Margaret Wright (31), was attacked, beaten unconscious and then shot in the head by RHC members, who apparently mistook her for a Catholic. Five days later the UVF abducted and shot dead one of its own members who had been present in the dance hall when Ms Wright was murdered. Two years later, the Red Hand Commando leader, William Elliott, who was suspected of actually shooting Ms Wright but never charged, was shot dead at a house in Bangor, Co Down. It is believed the man who shot Elliott - and then succeeded him as RHC leader - is the man now responsible for leading the new faction.
It is understood he left the north Co Down area in the last year and is now living in north Belfast. It is also believed he has links with a number of loyalist elements there, and was involved in a number of the sectarian assassinations in the city at the start of the year after republicans shot dead his former associate, Billy Wright, just before the new year.
In fact, the leader of the new group had severed all connections with the UVF by the time of the July 1996 crisis at Drumcree. At that stage he had begun associating with Billy Wright, the Portadown loyalist who was then opposing the main loyalist paramilitary ceasefires and leading his own small terrorist group called the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF).
The Red Hand figure appeared beside Wright - effectively becoming an LVF affiliate - at a rally in Portadown on September 4th, 1996, organised by the then Democratic Unionist Party MP for Mid Ulster, the Rev William McCrea. The appearance of the Red Hand man at this rally immediately placed him outside the mainstream loyalist paramilitary fold as Wright had by then issued a number of threats to mainstream UVF people as well as to members of its political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party.
Since Wright's death the remaining LVF figures have had an apparent change of heart. They declared a ceasefire and appear to be on the verge of decommissioning their arms. It is understood there have been private assurances from the British government that if the LVF decommissions weapons, its ceasefire will be recognised and the 30 or so LVF prisoners in the Maze prison given early release dates.
It is suspected the Red Hand figure, along with a small number of other dissident LVF people, might be seeking in the short term to derail the LVF's ceasefire. His intention in shooting dead a Catholic man walking home from a visit to his brother's house is not clear, but it may have been specifically aimed at damaging the political prospects of the former UVF prisoner and Progressive Unionist Party Assembly member for north Belfast, Billy Hutchinson.
Mr Hutchinson has been a key figure in bringing about and sustaining the loyalist ceasefire and in directing its political wing. Suggestions were floated at the weekend that Mr Service was killed by figures with either UVF or LVF connections.
Such suggestions are, almost certainly, designed to damage both the LVF ceasefire and the careers of emerging ex-paramilitary politicians like Mr Hutchinson. Yesterday, Mr Hutchinson declared there were no links between the UVF and Mr Service's murder and if any emerged he would resign his Assembly seat.
He also privately echoed the concerns of security sources, saying he feared for the safety of people in north Belfast following Mr Service's murder. "If they are a splinter group from the LVF then we can expect more killings and I would advise all people in north Belfast to be on their guard," he said.
In a coded statement admitting Mr Service's murder, the dissident group also admitted responsibility for a gun attack on a bar in republican west Belfast shortly before the murder. The concern, shared by both police and loyalist paramilitaries, is that the Red Hand figure - whom one former associate described as "completely mad" - may be contemplating further gun attacks on Catholic-owned premises.