Police release ‘harrowing’ dashcam video of UDA killer’s son in 100mph bid to outrun law
POLICE have released footage of the son of late UDA killer Stevie ‘Top Gun’ McKeag leading officers on a high speed car chase through Belfast.
Stephen Daniel McKeag (26), of Movilla Street, Newtownards, Co Down was jailed for 10 months in June.
He had pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving and driving without insurance after failing to stop for officers in October last year
His father died at the age of 30 at his home in north Belfast in 2000 after an overdose of painkillers and cocaine.
He was a member of Johnny Adair’s notorious UDA ‘C’ Company and was given the nickname ‘Top Gun’ over his involvement in numerous attacks.
Belfast Crown Court heard that his son McKeag hit speeds of up to 100mph as he tried to evade police.
The chase began after McKeag, a father-of-two, failed to stop at a police checkpoint on Corporation Street in Belfast at around 2.30pm.
Judge Stephen Fowler QC told Belfast Crown Court that a police officer was forced to jump out of the way as the driver accelerated towards him as he indicated for McKeag to stop. Officers then gave chase along Donegall Quay and onto Sydenham bypass as McKeag’s BMW mounted footpaths and drove through red lights during the pursuit.
Judge Fowler said police dash cam footage of the pursuit made for “very harrowing viewing”.
The judge said that as McKeag sped through built-up areas in east Belfast, “plumes of black smoke” billowed out from the back of the car.
McKeag almost collided with an ambulance on Whinney Hill after shooting out of a side street without stopping.
At one point, McKeag approached the roundabout at Campbell College at a speed of around 90mph “disrupting” the work of an emergency vehicle which had its lights and sirens on.
The car was eventually stopped after becoming wedged between two vehicles and stopped by another police car in Francis Street, Newtownards.
“When he was eventually stopped by police vehicles who had boxed him in, this defendant tried to make good his escape,” the judge noted.
Judge Fowler said McKeag had “put lives at real and significant risk”. McKeag was sentenced to 10 months in jail and disqualified from driving.
Inspector Rosie Leech said: “This was an uninsured driver who went to court on a litany of dangerous driving charges.”
She went on to say that had he stopped for police, McKeag would have been prosecuted and had his vehicle seized — but instead he was jailed. “The message is simple, when the police ask you to stop, you need to stop,” she said.