A 28 ANNI DI DISTANZA, LA VERITA’ SUL ‘DISAPPEARED’ DANNY McILHONE
A quasi 30 anni di distanza si è fatta luce sulla scomparsa di Danny McIlhone, uno dei ‘Disappeared of Northern Ireland Troubles’
Danny McIlhone, vittima dell’IRA, era uno dei ‘Disappeard of Northern Ireland Troubles‘ (persone improvvisamente scomparse, usualmente rapite e uccise, principalmente dall’Irish Republican Army (IRA), in Irlanda del Nord tra il 1972 e il 1986). Gli avevano sparato diverse volte prima di seppellirlo in una tomba segreta su una remota montagna.
Il ritrovamento avviene quasi tre decenni dopo quel lontano 1981, l’allora ventunenne di Belfast venne rapito e ucciso.
Geoff Knupfer, un investigatore scientifico che conduce ricerche per ritrovarei i corpi dei “disappeared”, ha dichiarato, durante l’udienza, che l’IRA ha ammesso i dettagli dell’uccisione all’Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains.
“Sono assolutamente soddisfatto dalle informazioni che abbiamo ricevuto da fonti dirette del movimento repubblicano, che gli ha sparato”, ha affermato Knupfer.
Quello che rimane del corpo di McIlhone è stato scoperto nel novembre scorso in una torbiera solitaria a Ballynultagh, vicino al villaggio di Lacken, tra le montagne di Wicklow.
L’ispettore, del Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Jody Crowe, ha detto che è stato il ritrovamento di uno stivale da cowboy in pelle a dare una svolta alle indagini.
Il fratello del vittima, Christopher,aveva affermato di aver visto quel tipo di stivale indosso a Danny, quando lo vide per l’ultima volta a Dublino.
Knupfer ha poi svelato altri dettagli che l’IRA avrebbe ammesso. McIlhone sarebbe stato prelevato in un locale a Ballynultagh, per un interrogatorio su ‘certe questioni’ e un Provos gli avrebbe sparato contro un certo numero di colpi.
Knupfer, interrogato da un membro della giuria del Dublin City Coroner’s Court, se sia a conoscenza di chi premette il grilletto, ha negato di avere informazioni circa l’identità dell’assassino.
Il rinvenimento del corpo è stato reso possibile dall’impiego di radar, scanner, sonde e cani da ritrovamento. Il riconoscimento ha trovato riscontri grazie a test sul DNA, comparando campioni prelevati dai fratelli e dalle sorelle del defunto.
Knupfer ha quindi concluso, che l’analisi del DNA, l’identificazione dello stivale da cowboy e le prove da parte dell’IRA, non lasciano assolutamente dubbi sul fatto che i resti siano quelli di McIlhone.
28 years after the IRA buried Danny McIlhone, a jury returns a verdict of unlawful killing (Belfast Telegraph)
Disappeared IRA victim Danny McIlhone was shot a number of times before being buried in a secret grave on a remote mountainside, an inquest has heard.
Nearly three decades after the then 21-year-old west Belfast man was abducted and killed in May 1981, a jury took just minutes to return a verdict of unlawful killing.
Geoff Knupfer, an investigative scientist leading the search for the bodies of the Disappeared, told the hearing the IRA admitted details of the shooting to the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains (ICLVR).
“I’m absolutely satisfied from information we received from direct sources in the republican movement that he was shot,” he said.
The partial remains of Mr McIlhone were uncovered last November in lonely bogland at Ballynultagh, near the village of Lacken in the Wicklow Mountains, in the Republic.
Detective Inspector Jody Crowe, from the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, said a leather cowboy boot found during an excavation of the site was a breakthrough for investigators.
The dead man’s brother, Christopher, was shown the light tan-coloured boot and said he remembered Danny wearing them when he last saw him in Dublin.
The inquest heard that the young man was abducted around May 12, 1981, from Ballymun’s now demolished Pearse Tower, where he was staying at the time.
Mr Knupfer said that the IRA had admitted taking Mr McIlhone to a “premises” in Ballynultagh for questioning about “certain matters” and that a Provo had shot him a number of times when a struggle broke out between them.
“We know there was more than one gunshot, but not how many,” he said.
Asked by a member of the jury, sitting at Dublin City Coroner’s Court, whether the ICLVR knew who pulled the trigger, Mr Knupfer said they had no information about the actual killer.
The former Greater Manchester detective — who helped locate the bodies of child victims of Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley — led an archaeological time-team which painstakingly excavated a 22-acre site near a stream called Ballydonnell Brook at Ballynultagh.
After dividing and mapping out the entire area, forensic investigators, using ground radar, scanners, probes and cadaver dogs, eventually found the left-footed cowboy boot.
Partial remains recovered with it at a square, marked grid number 82, were sent to a DNA laboratory in West Yorkshire where they matched samples taken from Mr McIlhone’s brothers and sisters.
Mr Knupfer said the DNA analysis, the identification of the cowboy boot and evidence from the IRA left him absolutely satisfied the remains were those of Mr McIlhone.
The inquest heard that none of the McIlhone family, from Bearnagh Drive, Andersonstown, Belfast, could travel to the hearing in central Dublin because of other family commitments.
Coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, stressed to jurors that an inquest cannot return a verdict of murder or manslaughter, before accepting their ruling of unlawful killing by a person or persons unknown.
“This is a terrible crime,” he added. “I will only be speaking for the community in saying that we deplore what happened.”
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