24 June 1999 Edition
Back issue: SAS used armalites for murder
British SAS soldiers armed with armalite rifles who murdered 16-year-old John Boyle in a stake-out at Dunloy last July, went on trial in Belfast on Wednesday.
The trial of Sergeant Michael Bowen (28) and Corporal Robert Temperly (26) was embarrassingly forced upon the Director of Public Prosecutions by a Press Association leak several months ago of the pathologist's report on the dead youth.
That report showed that John had been shot from behind, in the head, back and shoulder, from a distance of twelve yards. In their original lying statement, the British army claimed that the youth had picked up a rifle from an arms dump and pointed the weapon at them when challenged.
Details of the stake-out on the arms dump, which was discovered by John 24 hours previously and reported by his father to the RUC, emerged in the Belfast High Court on Wednesday. After the arms dump was reported, a Detective Constable from Ballymoney went to the graveyard with seven detectives.
The SAS were then drafted in for a stake-out - four of them attended a planning meeting in Ballymoney RUC barracks at about midnight. The detectives showed an SAS man the graveyard and pointed out local information from aerial photographs.
As we go to press the trial continues.
The trial of Sergeant Michael Bowen (28) and Corporal Robert Temperly (26) was embarrassingly forced upon the Director of Public Prosecutions by a Press Association leak several months ago of the pathologist's report on the dead youth.
That report showed that John had been shot from behind, in the head, back and shoulder, from a distance of twelve yards. In their original lying statement, the British army claimed that the youth had picked up a rifle from an arms dump and pointed the weapon at them when challenged.
Details of the stake-out on the arms dump, which was discovered by John 24 hours previously and reported by his father to the RUC, emerged in the Belfast High Court on Wednesday. After the arms dump was reported, a Detective Constable from Ballymoney went to the graveyard with seven detectives.
The SAS were then drafted in for a stake-out - four of them attended a planning meeting in Ballymoney RUC barracks at about midnight. The detectives showed an SAS man the graveyard and pointed out local information from aerial photographs.
As we go to press the trial continues.