A mother appealed to a loyalist community in north Belfast today to help identify the killers who stabbed her son to death.
On the second anniversary of the murder of 15-year-old Thomas Devlin as he walked home after buying sweets from a local shop, his mother urged those shielding the killers to do the decent thing and inform the police.
Her appeal came as police began a new poster campaign directed at the loyalist Mount Vernon area depicting Thomas's parents holding a picture of their son and declaring: "If we knew who had murdered your child we'd call."
At the same time a police officer said new "potentially significant" forensic examinations were being carried out on a number of items. In the past two years 12 people have been arrested and questioned, 77 searches mounted and more than 1000 statements taken.
Two men are believed to have carried out the murder - one was leading a dog. They walked up behind Thomas and two friends, stabbing him to death and injuring one of the others.
Speaking today, Penny Holloway said: "These men returned to their homes in Mount Vernon and were met by people who assisted in the cleaning and disposal of their clothes.
"Those closest to the killers are giving them alibis in the full knowledge of the savage and unprovoked murder that these men carried out on a 15-year-old schoolboy - there are families protecting them.
"There are people in the Shore Road who have got information which would lead to their prosecution and conviction of Thomas's murder. We have been waiting for two years for the people of their community to stand up against these vicious child-killers who continue to live amongst them," she said.
PA