'Kieran is still as important today' - grieving mum 30 years on from Strabane boy's murder

Kate Brown lives in hope that self-confessed child killer Brian Doherty is kept behind bars in Scotland and never freed to walk the streets of Strabane again. At his trial in May 1995, Doherty was deemed to have a severe personality disorder. He was convicted of manslaughter and kidnapping 11-year-old Kieran.

Aged 19 when he carried out the brutal killing, Doherty was transferred from Maghaberry Prison in Lisburn to serve his life sentence at Carstairs, the only high security psychiatric hospital covering Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Carstairs - officially known as 'The State Hospital' - houses what the courts deem to be some of the country's most dangerous inmates. In 2001, Doherty lost a high-profile legal case which could have allowed his return to a mainstream prison and the possibility of applying for parole at a later date.

Kieran's mother revealed that the authorities have to date failed to disclose any timeline for Doherty's incarceration which could offer her worried family and home town some much-needed peace of mind.

The Strabane grandmother hopes and prays that Doherty is held in Carstairs indefinitely as ordered at his sentencing for the protection of the public. She is fearful that if the notorious child killer is released from custody he could make his way back to the town. Locals who recall the case are still haunted by the horror which unfolded 30 years ago.

"He should never get out. We would probably never even be told if he is getting out. We had heard he was in a 'safe house' but I don't know if that is true or not. They would not give our solicitor any information at all," Kate stated.

"It just makes you feel that you are put to the side as if Kieran is not important, he's still as important today as he was when he was alive. Brian Doherty never should come back to Strabane."

This week she is trying to focus primarily on keeping Kieran's memory alive. He was the second youngest of four children and would be 42 this year if he had lived to celebrate his birthday on November 17.

Kate has a special celebration organised on Saturday evening to commemorate Kieran's life which was tragically cut short that ill-fated day 30 years ago. The schoolboy's anniversary will be remembered at 7pm Mass in St Mary's Church Melmount - across the road from the local primary school he attended - followed by a small private function in the nearby Fir Trees Hotel.

Kate has been keeping herself busy in the lead-up to the milestone 30th anniversary, delivering personalised invites to family and close friends with a new memoriam card also dedicated to Kieran who she misses as much as ever three decades on.

She has even kept her son's blue stripey bed linen for the past 30 years, laundered and folded away in a wardrobe never to be used again. A St Mary's Primary School uniform from his final days as a P7 pupil is mounted on the wall inside a large glass frame on the upstairs hallway of her home. There are also numerous family photographs displayed throughout the house.

Thirty years may seem like a lifetime to some people, but it's a mere blink for Kate who relives the ordeal of losing her blue-eyed boy every day. "I can't believe it's 30 years. There have been a lot of changes in my life, some good and some bad, and he is talked about quite often," she said. "I am particularly sad this time because it is the big one, 30 years. I just wonder what he would be up to, would he be married, have kids, what his job would be?"

Kate no longer lives in the original family home at Gormley Crescent on the Carlton Drive estate where her son's teenage killer was a neighbour. His aggressive and menacing behaviour had been a cause for concern among local residents long before he targeted his defenceless young victim.

Kate recalls: "Every time I close my eyes I still remember everything about that day.”

Kieran disappeared while running an errand for his mum, viciously intercepted by Doherty who had discharged himself from a psychiatric unit in Omagh against medical advice just days earlier.

In a macabre twist to an already harrowing case, Doherty infamously moved the schoolboy's body at the scene after it was initially found during searches in a wooded area off the Orchard Road. Police had to return to Kieran's home during the night to relay the shocking development to his mother while a manhunt was under way to apprehend his killer.

Kate recalled how she had kept the fire topped up with extra coal that bitterly cold January night, hoping that Kieran would be found safe and well.

Kate described Kieran as a "bubbly wee fella, always into football - a Manchester Utd fanatic." Asked what she misses most about him his mum replies, "the craziness". She cites examples like the time "he went down the bottom of the site and came back with his ear pierced". And, getting his head shaved, leaving just a small flick at the front. He had convinced a female neighbour who styled it for him that he had his mother's permission, they discovered afterwards.

The schoolboy also wore a baseball cap saying it was to cover his fringe being crooked but it was probably more to do with simply looking cool, his mum fondly recalled. Kate has chosen a treasured photo of Kieran grinning from ear to ear wearing the distinctive pink cap for his 30th anniversary notice published in the local paper this week. One of his young nephews is now proud owner of the baseball cap.

Kate recounted some other poignant memories that she hasn't shared publicly until now about her mischievous and soft-hearted 11-year-old. "He had his heart set on this girl, he had bought her a teddy bear and took it to the Melmount Centre kids disco in a shoe box. She wasn't there because she was grounded and he came back all downhearted. The day of his funeral, my daughter gave her the teddy bear and she still has it to this day."

Kate continued: "I still have his duvet cover, pillow slip and sheet which I keep in a wardrobe upstairs and is not touched by anyone else. When I was getting his room prepared for the funeral I moved the bed out and in behind were all biscuit wrappers.

"I had a tin cigar box under the Christmas tree which went missing, it was after Kieran died a neighbour told me him and his brother were hanging out the bathroom window smoking, the rest [of the cigars] were found in the attic."

Kieran also enjoyed a bit of harmless fun while helping a "spud man from Derry" on his rounds. The Strabane schoolboy would add a few extra eggs to the half dozen or dozen requested by customers. "At the wake the man was saying it took him ages to figure out where all the eggs went, Kieran was giving so many away," his mum laughed.

In a distressing parallel that no-one could have envisaged happening so close to home, Kate recalled that in the months prior to his death Kieran had been following the Jamie Bulger case, the toddler who was abducted from a shopping centre and murdered by two older boys in Liverpool in 1993. "He actually had written about it in his story book but the book was lost."

In the aftermath of her son's tragic murder, Kate and her family made emotional visits to the spot where his body was found in a shallow grave on the outskirts of the town. She explained: "He was fostered out for a while in Derry and his foster family from Culmore put up a temporary cross." His final resting place is in Melmount cemetery where his grave is adorned with flowers and mementoes placed by his loved ones.

Thanking people for their support throughout the past 30 years, Kate said that while she no longer lives there, "my neighbours in Carlton Drive were very good."

Kate explained that she likes to keep herself busy. She enjoys "a few days out" amid her caring responsibilities and is looking forward to better weather for some holiday outings in the coming months. "I have to keep going because if I lie down nobody else is going to take over. Kieran is never far from my thoughts..."

Her terrified child’s last anguished plea to Doherty was: “Don’t kill me. I never did anything to you. I’m making my Confirmation next March.”