Questions asked, but little time for answers

A former British soldier has been questioned under caution in connection with the killing of a Derry schoolgirl 52 years ago, it has emerged.

Fourteen-year-old Annette McGavigan was shot dead by the British Army during rioting in 1971.

The McGavigan family are among 16 legal challenges launched against new legislation recently passed to end such investigations.

In 2017, her family called for a fresh inquest into the schoolgirl’s death after fresh evidence emerged linked to the killing. It contradicted evidence presented to the jury at the original inquest, which concluded the bullet that killed Annette had “deflected or ricocheted”.

Her sister, May McGavigan branded the new ‘cover-up’ legislation a “disgrace”.

Ms McGavigan, who was 11 when her sister was killed, challenged the Dublin government to take action.

“I don’t think they’re fighting enough, they are talking the talk but they need to walk the walk,” she said. “It’s not good enough.”

“She was just an angel to our family, she was that good a person, would have done anything for anybody, such a good person,” she said.

“She loved art, writing poems and there was talk of her becoming a nurse when she grew up.”

She said they had been at school the day Annette was killed but a bomb scare resulted in them all being sent home early.

“Annette went to play with a friend, and I went on home. My ma asked me to go to the shop to buy some fruit, while I was going to the shop a girl I know stopped me on our street and said there was rioting at the Little Diamond and a wee girl was shot,” she said.

“I got home and said to my mammy, she said, ‘you aren’t allowed out because of the rioting’, I told her a wee girl was shot, and I’ll never forget the words, my mammy said ‘God help her poor mother and father whoever they are’.”

They later discovered the girl shot was Annette.

Her brother Martin was also 11 when the shooting took place.

“I’m very bitter and I always will be until I get truth and justice for Annette,” he said.

“We’ve watched our mother coming home from school, hugging her daughter’s clothes in the hot press every day.

“My mother’s way of dealing with it was lying up the stairs over the top of the newspaper clippings and her clothes, breaking her heart, and that will live with us for the rest of our lives.”

He said the bill was “morally wrong”.

“We would have thought it would have been sorted before now, but we’re going to keep fighting on, and hopefully it will get there.

“The British Government seem to be a law unto themselves trying to brush all this under the sand – they want to dig a hole in the sand to bury their heads in it.

“The politicians are against it, the Irish Government is against it, everyone is against it. If it happened anywhere else in the world, there would be uproar.

“It’s really shocking. This is a live murder investigation and now it could be shut down.

“We’re not the only ones affected, there are other families in the same situation. They can’t just close the door on them.

“Annette was no threat to anyone.”

Sara Duddy, from the Pat Finucane Centre, which has been supporting the McGavigan family, said the situation is very concerning with the case having taken a long time to get to this stage.

“The family were obviously optimistic … but we’re at the stage now where the (legacy) act is coming in and is designed to close down such investigations,” she said.

Urgent Appeal