'Driver responsible for riot death' says cop
The police officer who ordered the deployment of a British army Saxon personnel carrier during rioting in Derry almost twelve years ago, said yesterday that the soldier who drove the eleven ton vehicle was responsible for killing a man.
Dermot McShane, (36), a former member of the I.N.L.A., died after he was crushed by the Saxon during street disturbances on the fringe of the Bogside area of Derry on July 13, 1996.
At the fourth day of the Inquest into Mr. McShane's death, Inspector Neil Graham told Coroner Brian Sherrard that he had ordered the driver of the Saxon, Private Daniel Moran, to ram a metal skip which was being rolled by rioters towards police lines.
Instead the vehicle rammed a wooden hoarding being used as a shield by rioters during one of the worst week-ends of rioting ever seen in Derry.
Insp. Graham agreed that the ramming of the hoarding was the responsibility of the army driver.
The police officer, said as the officer in charge at the scene of the rioting he believed the metal skip posed a potentially greater danger to the lives of his officers.
"I was concerned that whoever was behind the skip may have been armed and could have fired at police lines", he said.
"There was certainly no desire on my part to cause injuries to persons. The situation was critical and the lives of my officers were very much in my hands at that time", he added.
Insp. Graham described the numbers of petrol bombs being thrown at police lines as being like a snowfall.
"They rained down in their hundreds and it was quite apparent at that stage that this was a pre-planned crowd who had at their disposal hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of missiles including petrol bombs", he said.
The police witness said the metal skip was being rolled at police lines "like a giant's footfall coming down the street at us. I was terrifed, I wouldn't like to go through it again".
The Inquest continues.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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