19 June 1997 Edition
Inquiry findings to be launched
By Eoin O'Broin
The findings of an independent inquiry into the UFF killing of Patrick Shanaghan is set to be launched later this month. Shanaghan, a Sinn Fein election worker, was murdered by the loyalist death squad as he drove to work at a DoE yard in Castlederg, Co Tyrone on 12 August 1991.
The findings of the inquiry have been compiled by the Castlederg/Aghyaran Justice Group, which held the investigation. Retired American judge Andrew Summers chaired the proceedings which were held last September.
Shanaghan's next of kin and the family's solicitor walked out of the official inquiry in June last year, claiming the proceedings were a farce. It emerged during the hearing that a photograph of the victim had gone missing from the back of a British Army vehicle travelling in the area several months before the killing.
Shanaghan, who had survived a previous murder attempt, was harassed by the RUC on a daily basis in the run up to his murder, the inquiry heard. He was detained more than 10 times without charge. Speaking to journalists, his widowed mother Mary and his sisters said that ``when the harassment proved unsuccessful his photograph and details were conveniently lost by the British Army, ending up in the hands of the Loyalists who went on to murder him''.
The findings of an independent inquiry into the UFF killing of Patrick Shanaghan is set to be launched later this month. Shanaghan, a Sinn Fein election worker, was murdered by the loyalist death squad as he drove to work at a DoE yard in Castlederg, Co Tyrone on 12 August 1991.
The findings of the inquiry have been compiled by the Castlederg/Aghyaran Justice Group, which held the investigation. Retired American judge Andrew Summers chaired the proceedings which were held last September.
Shanaghan's next of kin and the family's solicitor walked out of the official inquiry in June last year, claiming the proceedings were a farce. It emerged during the hearing that a photograph of the victim had gone missing from the back of a British Army vehicle travelling in the area several months before the killing.
Shanaghan, who had survived a previous murder attempt, was harassed by the RUC on a daily basis in the run up to his murder, the inquiry heard. He was detained more than 10 times without charge. Speaking to journalists, his widowed mother Mary and his sisters said that ``when the harassment proved unsuccessful his photograph and details were conveniently lost by the British Army, ending up in the hands of the Loyalists who went on to murder him''.