Harry Stockman

Harry Stockman, also known as "Harmless" (born c. 1961) is a Northern Irish loyalist and a senior member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) paramilitary organisation. He serves as the commander of the UVF 1st Battalion Shankill Road and is allegedly the second-in-command on the UVF Brigade Staff. His uncle was Robert "Basher" Bates, a member of the notorious Shankill Butchers gang.

At a news conference in June 2009, Stockman read out a decommissioning statement issued by the UVF and Red Hand Commando (RHC) leadership in which it claimed the organisations had put all of their weapons out of use.

Stockman survived a murder attempt in April 2011 when he was stabbed repeatedly outside a crowded supermarket by another UVF man as a revenge attack stemming from an internal dispute.

Early years Stockman was born in about 1961 in Belfast, Northern Ireland to a Protestant family and was brought up in the Greater Shankill area. Some of his family members were closely affiliated with militant loyalism, his uncle having been Robert "Basher" Bates, a member of the UVF-linked Shankill Butchers gang which carried out a series of cut-throat killings against Catholics in the mid-1970s.

Stockman joined the UVF Belfast Brigade on an unknown date.

Ulster Volunteer Force Stockman rose in the UVF ranks to become commander of the 1st Battalion Shankill Road. Acquiring the nickname "Harmless", Journalist Brian Rowan described Stockman as being "one of the most senior and influential leaders in the UVF organisation",

Stockman's influence within the UVF was such that he exerted a strong influence in the making and implementing of major decisions at Brigade Staff level, including demilitarising UVF members and decommissioning its weapons. At a news conference held on 27 June 2009 using the UVF's codename of "Captain William Johnston", Stockman read out the decommissioning statement issued by the UVF and Red Hand Commando leadership maintaining that the two organisations had put all of the weapons under their control out of use.

Stabbing attack At 4.30 pm on 20 April 2011, outside a Tesco supermarket on the Ballygomartin Road (a road to the immediate north-west of the Shankill Road), Stockman was stabbed by UVF man David "Dee" Madine (40). Homes belonging to Madine's family and friends were petrol-bombed by Stockman supporters including that belonging to his girlfriend, although she and their children had already fled when the attack occurred. Madine was refused bail and remanded to Maghaberry Prison.

In July 2012, Stockman was still waiting to claim his compensation payment of £13,500 which his solicitor had applied for at the Northern Ireland Office for the injuries he received in the stabbing. Victim's rights campaigner Raymond McCord, whose son Raymond Jr. was killed by the UVF in 1997, staunchly opposed the cash payout.