Woman prayed for happy death, Saville told

A woman today described praying in a stairwell for "a happy death" as the gunfire of Bloody Sunday echoed outside.

A woman today described praying in a stairwell for "a happy death" as the gunfire of Bloody Sunday echoed outside.

Ms Roisin Stewart told the Saville Tribunal she was convinced she was going to be killed after paratroopers came into Derry's Bogside following a civil rights demonstration 29 years ago.

She disclosed she was on the march against the wishes of her mother who dreamed of 13 coffins before January 30 1972 and "knew there was going to be trouble".

A brother of one of the 13 killed that day also told the hearing in the Guildhall, Derry, that some of the young victim's personal effects had never been recovered.

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Mr John Nash said the suit worn by his brother, William, when he was shot dead was returned to the family, but not his ring, chain and cross or cash.

Mr William Nash was one of three men shot dead on a makeshift barricade in Derry's Bogside district whose bodies were retrieved and taken to a morgue by Paratroopers.

The teenager's father, Alexander, was wounded going to his son's aid and died two years ago.

Mr John Nash claimed his brother, Charlie, a one-time world title boxing contender, was taunted by a police officer when he went to the morgue with another brother, Eddie, that night.

He said: "A uniformed police officer made a derogatory remark to my brother, Charlie, about our family which was something like, `Now there's just six of you left'.

"This was intended to insult and annoy and Charlie went for the police officer. He had to be dragged off by Eddie.

"The police knew my family because of Charlie's boxing - he had been national champion three times."

The tribunal, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, also heard that one youth, Mr Charlie McGuigan, spoke of getting home to let his parents know he was safe, unaware that a body lying covered nearby was his father, Barney.

Earlier Mrs Stewart described running with another friend from the advancing troops into a block of the Rossville Flats, eventually huddling for shelter in the stairwell with local pub bouncer "Barman" Duffy, a pregnant woman and her husband.

PA