Mad Dog’s underworld

11:05am Thursday 23rd November 2006

A TELEVISION documentary which details terror leader Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair's life in exile will be "controversial", film maker Donal MacIntyre has promised.

The hour-long MacIntyre's Underworld programme, entitled Mad Dog, will show the former Ulster Defence Association godfather settling in to life in Scotland.

He set up home in Troon after leaving Bolton last year following a troubled stay which saw him convicted of harassment and assaulting his wife.

The camera crew which filmed the documentary being shown on Tuesday are believed to be the first who have been allowed such close access to the ex-paramilitary boss.

The 65-minute programme is expected to include footage of him returning to his old stomping ground in the Shankill area of Belfast.

Adair is also filmed in Manchester during a face-to-face meeting with a former CID officer who helped send him to prison for 16 years in 1995.

MacIntyre meets some of Adair's fans, including lottery winner Michael Carroll.

MacIntyre said: "Although he has been convicted of crime, we don't make any moral judgement on him; we allow the audience to do that."

Adair moved to Bolton following his release from prison in January, 2005, where he had served two thirds of a 16-year sentence for directing terrorism.

His family and supporters fled to Bolton from Belfast's Shankill in 2003 after the murder of a UDA brigadier was blamed on Adair followers.

• Mad Dog is on Channel Five at 11pm on Tuesday.