1 April 1999 Edition
Former FAIT man charged with murder
A one-time leading spokesperson for anti-republican group FAIT (Families Against Intimidation and Terror) has been charged with the brutal murder of a 60-year-old man in Newry.
Damien McShane was one of two men who were charged on Tuesday, 30 March, with murdering Robert John McStravick, whose badly beaten body was found in Newry Canal on Monday. It is understood that McStravick's killers thought he was a Protestant and attacked him on Friday 19 March. He was beaten to death in the Drumalane Park area of Newry and then his body was weighted with concrete blocks before being dumped in Newry Canal.
When charged, McShane said: ``I'm very sorry it happened.''
McShane rose to prominence in the early 1990s when, along with Nancy Gracey, he was a spokesperson for FAIT. He made numerous media appearances on behalf of two Newry criminals from Drumalane Park who took refuge in the town's Cathedral after the IRA had ordered them to leave the Six Counties.
The Chair of Newry and Mourne Council, Sinn Féin Councillor Brendan Curran, said the murder was ``a despicable sectarian act which has horrified all the people of Newry. Our party has spoken out repeatedly against a gang of criminals from Drumalane Park and now our worst fears appear to have been realised.''
Damien McShane was one of two men who were charged on Tuesday, 30 March, with murdering Robert John McStravick, whose badly beaten body was found in Newry Canal on Monday. It is understood that McStravick's killers thought he was a Protestant and attacked him on Friday 19 March. He was beaten to death in the Drumalane Park area of Newry and then his body was weighted with concrete blocks before being dumped in Newry Canal.
When charged, McShane said: ``I'm very sorry it happened.''
McShane rose to prominence in the early 1990s when, along with Nancy Gracey, he was a spokesperson for FAIT. He made numerous media appearances on behalf of two Newry criminals from Drumalane Park who took refuge in the town's Cathedral after the IRA had ordered them to leave the Six Counties.
The Chair of Newry and Mourne Council, Sinn Féin Councillor Brendan Curran, said the murder was ``a despicable sectarian act which has horrified all the people of Newry. Our party has spoken out repeatedly against a gang of criminals from Drumalane Park and now our worst fears appear to have been realised.''