The sister of a Derry boy shot dead by a British soldier over 40 years ago has said described a reconstruction of the incident as ‘stressful.
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the killing of Manus Deery.
The 15-year-old, from Limewood Street in the Bogside, was standing with a group of teenage friends near the junction of Westland Street and Rossville Street when he was shot.
He was struck in the head by a high velocity shot from a soldier stationed at a sentry post 200 yards away on Derry’s Walls overlooking the Bogside.
The soldier who fired the shot, known as ‘Solider A’ has since died, but is understood another who was present, ‘Soldier B’, has recently been questioned about the killing.
The original inquest into Manus’ death in 1973 returned an open verdict.
However, the Attorney General, John Larkin, has now ordered that a fresh inquest into the shooting should take place, with a preliminary hearing now set for June 13.
As part of that, a re-enactment of the fatal shooting was held on the Walls , where members of the Deery family were in attendance along their legal team.
Representatives from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) were also in attendance and provided the reconstruction with telescopic sights British soldiers would have had mounted on their rifles in 1972.
Manus’ sister, Helen Deery said the reconstruction had been a ‘difficult’ experience for her family.
“I found it very sad,” she said.
“It was very tough for my younger sister to be there looking down from the place where the shot was fired, it was very stressful for her.”
She added that the reconstruction did give some insight to the technical aspects of the case ahead of the fresh inquest ordered by Attorney General.
“There is progress being made, but unfortunately we were told that one of the night scopes couldn’t be used in the reconstruction as the batteries they need are no longer being manufactured, which I don’t believe.”
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