UVF link to brutal murder of 16-year old
Loyalists with links to an active UVF squad which has been
operating in the South Down area for the past number of years are
behind the killing of Catholic teenager James Morgan, An
Phoblacht has learned. And despite the RUC refusal to describe
the killing as sectarian all the evidence points towards a random
sectarian attack on a Catholic.
Morgan's body was found mutilated in Clough, County Down last
Sunday 27 July three days after the 16 year old schoolboy was
abducted coming from the resort of Newcastle on Thursday at
around tea-time.
Among the UVF gang are members of well known loyalist families
who were said to have been involved in the Loughinisland massacre
in 1994 when six Catholics, watching the Irish team playing in a
World Cup match, were shot dead by the UVF. Another family member
was convicted for the killing of Dundrum businessman Jack Kielty
who was shot dead at his workplace in 1988, although this killing
was claimed by the UDA.
The gang, which is run by members of the notorious loyalist
family, has also been responsible for a number of attempted
murders where they attacked nationalists, in the area, in their
homes. On one occasion in 1994 the home of a Sinn Fein worker was
attacked and up to 40 shots from assault rifles were fired
through the windows after the loyalists failed to break into his
house.
When James Morgan, the second youngest in a family of seven,
didn't return from Newcastle to his Annesborough home on Thursday
evening last his parents thought he had gone off with a friend
and would return the following day. He never returned.
At some point on Thursday the RUC received two phone calls, one
from a farmer near Clough who reported suspicious activity at a
sinkhole on his farm and later an anonymous caller reported that
someone ``called Morgan was dead''.
But it wasn't until Sunday that the RUC discovered James Morgan's
body in the water-filled hole used to bury animal carcasses. His
badly mutilated body was so disfigured that James was only
identified by his dental records.
Residents of Annesborough, a village which neighbours the bigger
nationalist village of Castlewellan, told An Phoblacht that
people were shocked by the teenager's murder and drew
similarities with the horrific murder of Francis Rice.
Rice, a 17 year old IRA Volunteer was abducted and mutilated by a
gang in May 1975 and his body was then dumped at a roadside
outside Castlewellan.
Speaking for Sinn Fein, party representatives Mick Murphy and
Frank McDowell accused the RUC of ``trying to defuse public
concern around the brutal sectarian murder of James Morgan.
``All the evidence points to a sectarian abduction which ended
with the brutal murder of this young lad''.
d speaking to An Phoblacht after James Morgan's funeral on
Wednesday 30 July, Sinn Fein councillor for the area Frank
McDowell, said there is a lot of anger in the area and people
can't understand why the RUC are denying there is a sectarian
motive behind the killing.
Meanwhile a 26 year old man from Bryansford Road in Newcastle,
Norman Coopey, was charged with the teenager's killing at a
special sitting of Downpatrick court on Monday. A second man who
has been in custody was released as the teenager was being
buried. One man who spoke to AP/RN as the news of the release was
breaking accused the RUC of ``brushing the killing under the
carpet''.
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