Woman pinned to floor with pitchfork: 40th anniversary of double murder

Eighty-seven year old William Younger and his 57-year-old single daughter Letitia were beaten, stabbed and shot in their beds in Wolfhill Avenue in Ligoniel on August 15, 1980.

The Troubles directory, Lost Lives, says that they were “Protestants living in a predominantly Catholic area”.

The reference work states: “It is believed the father was shot and beaten as he slept in his bed.”His daughter had been stabbed with a garden pitchfork which pinned her to the floor as well as being shot in the head and chest.”Two men were seen running to a car after the killing but they could not be identified and police told the inquest that there was no apparent motive.A neighbour heard noises at around 2am and went to investigate.”I heard this terrible heavy breathing from Miss Younger’s room so I went in and found her with a pitchfork stuck to the back of her neck,” the neighbour said.She died later in the Mater Hospital.

Kenny Donaldson, spokesman for umbrella victims group, Innocent Victims United said: “These were brutal murders clearly motivated by sectarian and ethnic hatred, those who committed these murders will have felt justified in doing so because of the warped political ideology that consumed them and which provided cover for their actions”.

“Those responsible murdered an 87-year-old defenceless man as he lay in his own bed sleeping and his vulnerable 57-year-old single daughter, the weapons and intensity of violence used illustrates the level of depravity the killers possessed, these murders were demonic.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with surviving family and friends of the Youngs today and every day.”

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