2 October 1997 Edition

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Hoax bombers target pregnant woman

THE PREGNANT WIFE OF Collie Duffy was the target of a hoax bomb attack, thought to be the work of loyalists, in Lurgan on Monday 29 September.

Susie Duffy blamed the RUC for the attack, saying that their "campaign against Colin over the years has targeted the family". Ms Duffy is expecting the couple's second child next month.

Duffy is at present on remand charged with killing two RUC men in Lurgan in June. He had already spent over three years in jail after being falsely imprisoned for the killing of a UDR sergeant and was released 10 months ago.

The hoax letter bomb was delivered to Susie Duffy's house in Lurgantarry on Monday but she wasn't home so the postman took it to Colin's mother's house. There a relative told the postman to throw it in a bin.

Sinn Féin northern chairperson Gerry O'hEara called on nationalists to "remain vigilant", after the attack which he claimed was the work of loyalists.

*Meanwhile Green Party MEP Patricia McKenna has expressed her concern over the Duffy case. In a letter to Duffy's legal team, Ms McKenna wrote, "I am most concerned at the way Colin Duffy has been charged with the Lurgan killings despite the absence of any credible evidence against him".

McKenna pledged her support to efforts "to ensure justice is achieved".

Also supporting the Duffy case is British Labour MP, Chris Mullan, who has written to Mo Mowlam describing the case against Duffy as "as blatant a case of stupidity and malpractice as I have come across.

"It appears to indicate that those responsible for this investigation have little or no interest in discovering who is responsible for the murder of their colleagues, but are wholly pre-occupied with avenging themselves on Mr Duffy for previously escaping their clutches.

"In any ordinary jurisdiction a case so disgraceful as this would have been thrown out at first instance, but I understand that it has been before two Northern Ireland judges - Lord Justice Nicholson and Mr Justice Nicholson - and they have both declined to intervene".

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