The family of the man who was shot dead on the outskirts of Derry last week by the Real IRA said today that there should be no retaliation for his murder.
The naked body of father-of-one Kieran Doherty (31), who was engaged to be married in June, was found with his hands tied behind his back lying on the Braehead Road last Wednesday. He had been shot twice in the head.
The murder was claimed by the Real IRA, who alleged that he had been involved in drug-related activities, an allegation rejected by the victim’s family.
At his requiem mass in St Columba’s church in Long Tower today, Mr Doherty’s coffin was draped with a tricolour, which was removed as it was brought into the church, in accordance with the rules of the Catholic church in the diocese of Derry relating to paramilitary funerals.
Fr Roland Colhoun told the mourners that the victim’s family “asks that there be no retaliation so that no other family will have to suffer this trauma”.
He said Mr Doherty’s death had resulted in “a lot of soul searching” and he appealed to “the people who brought death and heartbreak to this community to rejoin the civilised way of life that God calls you to”.
Fr Colhour said the murder of Mr Doherty had brought terrible distress to his family. “Who would say that they would like to die an unexpected death, inflicted by gun at the side of a lonely road? No-one would wish for that and no-one should inflict that on another person,” he added.
Meanwhile Mr Doherty’s family have asked for the North’s First and Deputy First Ministers, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, to support their call for an inquiry to be carried out into any alleged involvement in the events leading up to the murder by MI5.
Family members have stated that in recent months Mr Doherty believed he was under surveillance by MI5 after he’d rejected their efforts to recruit him as an informer.