THE BRITISH government’s independent adviser on terrorism legislation yesterday visited the scene of a Real IRA. murder in Derry earlier this year following claims by the victim’s family that MI5 had concealed knowledge of the murder.
Kieran Doherty (31), the father of a three-year-old child, was shot dead by the Real IRA, who claimed he was involved in drug dealing, an allegation denied by his family. Doherty, who was a senior member of the Real IRA, had alleged in the media several weeks before his murder that MI5 members were harassing him.
HIs body was found on Braehead Road on the outskirts of Derry last February by a nurse returning from a house call to a patient. He’d been bound and shot in the back of the head.
Yesterday, Liberal Democratic peer Lord Carlile visited the scene of the murder accompanied by members of Doherty’s family. Fresh flowers had been laid at the scene beside a memorial cross.
At Braehead Road, Lord Carlile was met by Doherty’s grandmother Mary Doherty and by the victim’s sisters Lyndsay and Leeanne Doherty together with his partner, Maireád Millar, the mother of Doherty’s daughter Caoimhe.
Several relatives wept during the emotional meeting after which they raised their allegations with Lord Carlile in the offices of SDLP MP Mark Durkan.
Doherty’s uncle Vincent Coyle said it was the family’s belief that there was a definite MI5 involvement in the circumstances leading up to the murder.
“We are of the firm belief that the Real IRA had been infiltrated by MI5 before Kieran’s murder and we believe Lord Carlile will be in a position to determine that,” he said.