La Mon atrocity ‘ate at suspect like a cancer’
Families of the La Mon massacre victims are to call for a Full Public inquiry into the IRA bomb which killed 12 people.
A SUSPECT broke down in tears during police questioning and said the La Mon atrocity was “eating at him like a cancer”.
However, Edward Brophy was never convicted of the bombing after it was directed confessions made by him were inadmissible.
The HET report into the atrocity records Brophy having been arrested several times.
It says: “After initially denying any involvement in the bomb he broke down and cried and said ‘This is a terrible thing. I can’t sleep and it is eating at me like a cancer’.”
But on Tuesday April 1, 1980, Mr Justice Kelly directed that Brophy’s confessions were inadmissible as he was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt they were not induced by torture or inhumane or degrading treatment.
Brophy died of natural causes in 1997 while another man, Robert Murphy, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of manslaughter, causing the explosion and other unconnected terrorist offences.
He received 12 life sentences for causing the deaths. Murphy was released in 1995 and died in 2006.
The names of 69 people were mentioned in intelligence documents or featured during the initial investigation but the HET did not know who authorised or sanctioned the attack, according to Ulster Human Rights Watch lobbyists.
A total of 35 people were arrested but the campaigners said that, without original documentation, the details of the interviews are unknown, adding that records were not automatically updated.
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
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