Republican News · Thursday 17 February 2000

[An Phoblacht]

British cover up child killing

The British Army seem to have got away with child murder in West Belfast yet again after the killing last Sunday afternoon of nine-year-old Hugh Maguire of New Barnsley Crescent. As in the previous cases of Leo Norney and Brian Stewart, they have the apparent acquiescence of their RUC colleagues and of a servile media.

A school friend eyewitness has testified that young Hugh was killed by a British Army `Pig' armoured vehicle, which deliberately swerved onto the foot path along which they and another friend were walking.

Such vital evidence has not been sought out nor published by the media; the coroner at the inquest suggested that Hugh's fatal head injury was caused by an iron bar thrown by riotors; and no British soldier has yet been charged with the killing.

A typical British cover-up is obviously on the cards.

Hugh Maguire is, unfortunately, no stranger to the injustice of the British legal system. Five years ago, several members of his family, including his brother Paddy and sister-in-law Anne, were framed by the London Special Branch and are now serving long sentences in England.

The death of young Hugh is the second British-caused tragedy for the Maguire family within a few weeks. Frame-up victim Guiseppe Conlon, who died last month from medical neglect in jail in England, was the dead boy's uncle.

Phoblacht, Saturday 16 February 1980


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