THE family of a Belfast postal worker shot dead by loyalists have urged a coroner to order 12 one-time suspects to give evidence at his inquest.

Lawyers for Daniel McColgan's relatives have also asked that a Scottish-based author who wrote a book about the UDA - the organisation that murdered the 20-year-old Catholic in 2002 - be called as a witness.

The father-of-one was gunned down by a UDA gang as he arrived for work at a sorting office in the loyalist Rathcoole estate in north Belfast. No-one has ever been convicted for the sectarian murder.

At a preliminary hearing at Belfast Coroner's Court barrister Andrew Moriarty, representing the McColgan family, told senior coroner John Leckey that he would like to see the 12 suspects appear in the witness box. Mr Moriarty also asked the coroner to also consider adding the author Ian S Wood to the inquest witness list.

Mr Wood, an Edinburgh-based writer, penned Crimes of Loyalty: A History Of The UDA, published in 2006.