Dee Stitt: I'm no longer a UDA commander and I'm on good terms with DUP

But he admitted that the party is now reluctant to be publicly seen with him after Arlene Foster faced criticism for being pictured with him in 2016.

In an interview with the News Letter, Mr Stitt – who is chief executive of the UDA-linked charity Charter NI – said that he understood why many in the DUP, which was involved in arguing for public money to go to the charity for work in disadvantaged areas of east Belfast, were now cautious about being seen with him.

He said: “Aye, I’ve still got a relationship with the DUP, still talking to elected representatives. Is it strained? No.”

Smiling, he added: “They’ll not get their photo taken with you any more – no certainly they’ll not. Who would? If they [critics] do that to the first minister, do you think a councillor’s going to get his photo taken with me?

“That was the message that was sent out; that was the message that had to be learnt from that ... I’m an easy target; I’m a loyalist; I don’t have a political machine behind me; I’m on my own – that’s why I’m speaking to you now.

“All this time, after all this stuff, it was just getting beyond a joke and nobody was going to speak out on my behalf – who? So I have to speak out on my own behalf.”

He said that initially the DUP had been public in backing him “but then when it got really ferocious, you know what it’s like – nobody wants to get blood on their shirt when there’s a fight on”.

The former UDA prisoner said that he has always voted for the DUP – even though he supported the Good Friday Agreement and the DUP viscerally opposed it.

He said he had a “good relationship” with Assembly Speaker Robin Newton who he says was “advising” Charter and who he partially credits with some of its successful work.

He said that former DUP leader Peter Robinson was “100%” involved in supporting Charter and “at the forefront of helping us to restructure and regenerate our area”, adding that several years ago people in Charter realised that they needed “resources” to take forward their work and “we lobbied Peter Robinson to help us get resources”.

The father of three claimed that people were “inflicting harm” on him and on his family, saying that his youngest daughter attends a private school and doesn’t get invited to birthday parties or sleepovers “because of me; because of all this media attention around me”.

Mr Stitt defended his role in the £80m Social Investment Fund, which the DUP and Sinn Fein set up to address deprivation but which opposition parties claimed was partially being used as a ‘slush fund’.

But he admitted that there had been conflict of interest problems: “I didn’t design the process. Did that process put me in conflicting situations? Yeah ... you were on a steering group that was deciding the allocation for the money and you were involved in a process that some of those programmes are going to your organisation; I didn’t design the process. I was just there to get the best for my community.”

Mr Stitt said that he wasn’t ruling out a future move into politics but he hopes to remain at Charter for “a good five to 10 years”.

Last year the respected BBC Spotlight investigative programme alleged that David Stitt remained the UDA commander in North Down and that the organisation was invovled in serious crime.

When it was put to him that most people would be in the High Court the next day to sue the BBC and clear their names if the allegation was wrong, he said: “I didn’t have the money to take Spotlight to court.”

If he had the money, would he have sued?

“Big time. I’m on £30,000 a year – just over the legal aid threshold. Obviously, I pursued that with my legal advisors.

“If I had the money, I’d have Spotlight in court tomorrow. I’d have all the newspapers in court tomorrow. I don’t have the money.

“I don’t have the money to take on the BBC; I don’t have the money to take on The Guardian, The Irish News, The Sunday Life, The Sunday World – that’s how I’m an easy target ... I’m an easy target and they keep on targeting me.”

When asked about claims that he owns several houses and businesses, Mr Stitt said: “No. I own one house – the house I live in ... I have a private business; me and my wife have a private business.

“My wife works in that; she runs that. How I got that private business? I went down and got a business loan, the way everybody else does, and that funded that private business ... the perception ‘oh, he’s laundering money; that’s drug money’ – absolute poppycock.”