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Court hears of torture and assault allegations as Ballymurphy Inquest continues

ALLEGATIONS of serious assaults and torture were heard in court today, as military witnesses gave evidence at the Ballymurphy Inquest into the deaths of 10 people in west Belfast nearly 50 years ago.

A former British soldier known as M432 told how he saw squaddies hold a prisoner by his legs out of a vehicle, allowing his head to trail dangerously near the road as they left Ballymurphy.

They were involved in operations following the introduction of internment without trial, which was seen as targeting Belfast’s Catholic minority.

British paratroopers shot dead 10 unarmed civilians during a three-day killing spree in west Belfast in August 1971.

Yesterday’s hearing was examining the killings of John Laverty, 20, and Joseph Corr, 43.

Soldier M432 said of the pair: “There were no weapons there and my immediate thought upon seeing them was that they did not look like terrorists. I remember thinking that they both just looked like they were going onto or coming off a night shift at work.”

Families of the victims have led a decades-long quest for truth and justice on behalf of those killed, amid a state cover-up.

Former Lance Corporal  M546 poured scorn on the testimony of “Soldier B” who gave a statement in 1972 claiming he fired at two men who were holding a pistol and a sub-machine gun.

He said he was “amazed” at the evidence, deriding Soldier B’s testimony as “doing a Walter Mitty.”

A statement by the son of Joseph Corr, who is now also deceased, gave details of a sickening letter sent to the family ahead of the funeral:

“On the morning of his funeral we received a letter reading ‘May your subhuman husband and his pals rest in peace.’

“I never got a full account of what happened to my father that night, or why there was no police investigation.”

The inquest continues.

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