Republican News · Thursday 30 May 2002

Protest as death drivers claim another young life

Kieran Conlon, a 21-year-old from Lenadoon in West Belfast, has become the latest person to be killed by death drivers.

The young man had just left a nightclub on the Stewartstown Road at 3.30am on Sunday morning 26 May when he was cut down by a speeding Vauxhall Corsa.

eyewitness told An Phoblacht that the impact was so great that the young man had no chance. Kieran died soon after in hospital.

Within hours of the killing, two youths aged 19 and 16, notorious car thieves and hoods from the Twinbrook area of the city, handed themselves over to the RUC/PSNI. The pair were charged on Monday 27 May.

Stephen Campbell (19) from Broom Park in Twinbrook was charged with causing death by dangerous driving, while the 16-year-old, who can't be named, was charged with allowing himself to be carried in a stolen car.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people from the area attended a rally organised by local community groups to protest against the killing of Kieran Conlon. The rally, held at the bottom of Lenadoon Avenue on Sunday evening, was attended by the relatives of other people killed by death drivers in the past 12 years.

Addressing the gathering, Sinn Féin councillor for the area, Gerard O'Neill, promised the Conlon family the help and support of the community at this terrible time. O'Neill criticised the statutory bodies for their lack of willingness to put resources into West Belfast to alleviate the social problems facing the area.

It has also been disclosed that the RUC/PSNI were aware from 10.30pm that the stolen car was being driven about the area on Saturday night after it had been stolen in the University area of Belfast.

Gerard O'Neill said the news "only serves to prove the point that the RUC/PSNI have no interest in dealing with car thieves. They are more interested in turning these people into informers to spy on their communities than in stopping car crime".