Post by RedFlag32 on Sept 8, 2006 20:14:35 GMT
An inquest has been told that a west Belfast man was killed because he stood up to dissident republicans.
Belfast Coroner's Court heard Danny McGurk was murdered in front of his young children after a neighbourhood dispute at his home in Ross Road.
He was shot six times because of alleged earlier confrontations with members of the Real IRA in the months leading up to his 2003 murder.
Belfast Coroner John Leckey said the motive for the murder was "revenge".
"It really was about a loss of face on the part of one or more persons in the RIRA which led to his death," he said.
Dissident republicans were blamed for shooting 35-year-old Mr McGurk at his Ross Road home in the nationalist lower Falls area in August 2003.
'Investigation still active'
Detective Superintendent Hugo Frew, who is leading the investigation, told the court police had carried out 16 searches in the area.
As a result, officers had recovered ammunition and explosives and had made 10 arrests.
A gun believed to have been used in the shooting had been recovered on the Letterkenny Road in Londonderry, said Mr Frew.
No convictions had been achieved, but the investigation was still very active, he said.
Family solicitor Trevor McCann told the court Mr McGurk was murdered because he was "an individual in the community who was standing up to people who considered themselves to be somehow people who could control other people's lives and wanted to have the people subservient to what they wanted".
After the hearing, Mr McGurk's mother Mary Ellen said: "Danny was murdered for no other reason than vendetta. There was no political or criminal reason for him to be murdered other than vendetta."
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/5328120.stm
Belfast Coroner's Court heard Danny McGurk was murdered in front of his young children after a neighbourhood dispute at his home in Ross Road.
He was shot six times because of alleged earlier confrontations with members of the Real IRA in the months leading up to his 2003 murder.
Belfast Coroner John Leckey said the motive for the murder was "revenge".
"It really was about a loss of face on the part of one or more persons in the RIRA which led to his death," he said.
Dissident republicans were blamed for shooting 35-year-old Mr McGurk at his Ross Road home in the nationalist lower Falls area in August 2003.
'Investigation still active'
Detective Superintendent Hugo Frew, who is leading the investigation, told the court police had carried out 16 searches in the area.
As a result, officers had recovered ammunition and explosives and had made 10 arrests.
A gun believed to have been used in the shooting had been recovered on the Letterkenny Road in Londonderry, said Mr Frew.
No convictions had been achieved, but the investigation was still very active, he said.
Family solicitor Trevor McCann told the court Mr McGurk was murdered because he was "an individual in the community who was standing up to people who considered themselves to be somehow people who could control other people's lives and wanted to have the people subservient to what they wanted".
After the hearing, Mr McGurk's mother Mary Ellen said: "Danny was murdered for no other reason than vendetta. There was no political or criminal reason for him to be murdered other than vendetta."
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/5328120.stm
