Ballymurphy families meet police in campaign for murder inquiry to be opened

The families of a group of people killed by the British army in west Belfast in 1971 have held their first meeting with police in a bid to have a murder investigation opened.

The meeting comes after a fresh inquest into the deaths in Ballymurphy in August 1971 concluded that the 10 were innocent victims.

The Army was found to be responsible for nine of the 10 deaths, with not enough evidence to determine who fired the shot which killed the tenth victim.

The families of the victims want to see a murder inquiry opened.

They met Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd at PSNI headquarters in east Belfast on Thursday.

John Teggart, whose father Danny was among the ten killed in 1971, said the murders must be investigated.

He described an “intense meeting” during which each of the families explained how the murder of their loved ones has affected them.

“We had never met with police, either the PSNI or RUC, at any stage, so this is the first contact the families have had with police,” he told the PA news agency.

“We explained to Mr Todd that after the inquest findings, that all our loved ones were innocent, the crime of murder needs to be investigated.

“It’s just the first meeting so we set out what our intentions are and what we expect from police, their responsibilities to the community.

“We will make a submission and we will be back.

“We told police their job will be made easy because the work is done, the documents are here, the evidence is there and the witnesses are there and contactable.

“Now we need to see a murder investigation kickstarted.”

Mr Teggart said it had been a good day for the families, and that they feel hopeful for the new year.

“There are a lot of legacy cases and we respect that, we’re no different to anybody else, everyone deserves an investigation, including ourselves,” he added.

Earlier in 2022, a civil case brought by the families against the Ministry of Defence was settled with undisclosed damages to be paid by the MoD.

Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd earlier met with the families of those who lost loved ones in Ballymurphy in 1971.

Mr Todd said: “A number of issues were discussed during the meeting and we will continue to engage with the families.”