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Robert John "R. J." Kerr ( 1943 – 8 November 1997), was a leading Northern Irish loyalist. He served as the commander of the Portadown battalion of the Ulster Defence Association's Mid-Ulster Brigade. Along with the Mid-Ulster Ulster Volunteer Force's brigadier Robin Jackson, Kerr was implicated in the killing of Catholic chemist William Strathearn. Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Patrol Group officers John Weir and Billy McCaughey named him as one of their accomplice; however, neither Kerr nor Jackson were questioned by police or brought before the court, for "reasons of operational strategy". Weir and McCaughey were convicted of Strathearn's killing. Kerr was alleged to have been a member of the Glenanne gang, in which Jackson was a key figure. This gang of loyalist extremists was a loose alliance of loyalist paramilitaries and rogue members of the security forces who carried out a series of sectarian attacks in south County Armagh in the 1970s against local Catholics. Kerr was killed in mysterious circumstances; his charred body was found near a burnt-out boat that had exploded as it was being towed on a trailer on the main Newry to Warrenpoint road. ==Ulster Defence Association== Robert John Kerr was born into a Protestant family in Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland in about 1943. He joined the loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), shortly after its formation in Belfast in September 1971. It was an umbrella organisation of local vigilante groups that were set up following the outbreak of violent religious and political conflict known as the Troubles in the late 1960s, ostensibly for the defence of Protestant communities from nationalist gangs. At some stage he became the commander of the Portadown battalion of the UDA's Mid-Ulster Brigade. On 9 September 1972 he was charged with possession of weapons and ammunition in suspicious circumstances in Lurgan. Miami Showband bomber Harris Boyle was one of those arrested with him.〔 Kerr was later found guilty of having participated in an armed robbery on 10 March 1973. The following year, on 29 January 1974, he was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for assaulting and intimidating two men seven months before.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Robert John Kerr」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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