James Millar (loyalist)
| James Millar | |
|---|---|
| Born |
James Millar 6 July 1966 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | "Sham" "Boss Hog" Jim |
| Organization | Ulster Defence Association |
| Known for | Loyalist paramilitary |
| Parent(s) | Wendy Millar |
| Relatives | Herbie Millar (brother) Jackie Thompson (brother-in-law) |
James Millar (born 6 July 1966) – commonly known as "Sham" – is a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary. Millar was a leading member of the West Belfast Brigade of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) until 2003 when he was one of a number of dissident members forcibly expelled from the group.
Sham Millar was born in Belfast to a Protestant family and made his home in the Shankill Road area of west Belfast. He is the son of Wendy Millar, who was a leading figure in the UDA's women's unit. Along with contemporaries such as his brother Herbie, Johnny Adair, Sam McCrory, "Fat" Jackie Thompson and Donald Hodgen, Millar was part of a skinhead gang that was involved in petty and violent crime in and around the lower Shankill in the early 1980s.
The skinhead gang as a whole were sworn into the UDA in 1984 and assigned to C8 the eighth active unit of C Company, the section of the West Belfast Brigade that was active in the lower Shankill. Millar, Adair, Thompson and McCrory initially formed an active unit that drove around neighbouring republican areas looking for and occasionally attacking targets, notably Sinn Féin councillor Sean Keenan, whom the group injured in a shooting at his Andersonstown home in June 1990. Like Thompson, Millar was heavy set, although at 16 stone he weighed six stone less than his friend. Bearing a number of tattoos like his fellow C Company members, Millar's most notorious tattoo was the legend "Fuck Taigs" across the back of his neck.
According to David Lister and Hugh Jordan Millar committed his first murder on 31 July 1990 when he killed Catholic civilian John Judge at his home on the Falls Road. With McCrory driving, Millar, Thompson and a third unidentified gunman crossed the peace line before shooting Judge, with Millar firing the fatal shots after Thompson had initially wounded the victim. The attack occurred as Judge was talking with a number of friends outside his house, where his son's fifth birthday party was taking place. The attack was claimed by the UDA under its "Ulster Freedom Fighters" codename two days later. The statement claimed that the attack was in revenge for the murder of Conservative Party MP Ian Gow and added that Judge was a "known IRA bomber", a claim rejected by both Sinn Féin and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). Millar and Thompson were arrested for Judge's murder although neither was charged in the end. Soon after his release a warrant was put out for Millar's arrest again after Katherine Spruce, a former girlfriend of Adair's who claimed to have been manhandled and forcibly ejected from Adair's flat by members of C Company after the pair had a row, went to the police and volunteered information about the plotting being done by Adair, Millar and others at Adair's flat. Millar went on the run to avoid arrest. The allegations made by Spruce did not stand up however and before long Millar was back on the Shankill in Adair's company.
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