BY MARK McKELVEY
The family of 24-year-old Aidan McAnespie, who was shot dead in Aughnacloy by a British soldier in 1988, have welcomed the findings of a report that states the official account of events regarding his death is the "least likely version" of what happened.
The McAnespie family have spent the past 20 years struggling and fighting to find the truth surrounding the circumstances of Aidan's murder and feel this report by the PSNI's Historical Enquiries Team (HET) has vindicated those efforts.
Aidan had just passed through the border checkpoint in the village on his way to Aghaloo GFC grounds when he was hit by a bullet. His family says he had been the target of systematic harassment since the age of 17 and on the day of his death, his movements would have been routinely noted by the crown forces.
The soldier who fired the trigger, Guardsman Holden, had claimed that his hands were wet, causing him to accidentally fire the heavy machine-gun when he was moving inside a sanger.
The McAnespie family had always been told that the safety catch was off and his finger "slipped" onto the trigger firing three shots with one of the bullets ricocheting into the roadway 60cm behind Aidan at a distance of 243 metres before hitting him in the back and killing him.
However, the HET report has now concluded that, of the possible scenarios that led to the fatal shooting, the version of events as suggested by the soldier who shot Aidan "could be considered to be the least likely". The truth of the matter however is still unknown.
Speaking in reaction to this finding, Elish McAnespie, sister of the victim said, "This report vindicates our family and our long campaign for justice.
"We have always rejected the theory that Aidan was killed by a ricocheted bullet fired at random because a soldier had wet fingers and that Aidan was not being tracked at that precise time.
"We have come to terms with the reality that the full truth may never be established. Only Guardsman Holden and others on duty that terrible Sunday know what really happened. But at least we now have an official report which rejects the accepted version of events.
"Though we do not believe that we can find justice through the criminal justice system, we have attained some measure of truth, truth for Aidan, truth for us as a family and truth for the wider community who supported us and never believed the official story.
"We never believed that Aidan died as a result of a series of random disconnected coincidences with no relationship to how he was perceived by those who harassed him on a daily basis."
Aidan's niece, Una McCabe, said the family will continue to search for the truth.
"As of today we no longer have to disprove the official story. The burden of proof now lies with the British Army and we request some accountability from the Ministry of Defence (MoD)," said Una.
"This is certainly not the end. Maybe after 20 years it is the best beginning that we have had. We always knew we would never get a prosecution out of this, but all we want is the truth and someone to be accountable. We see this as the beginning.
"For years we have tried to get the Crowley Report (an investigation by Deputy Garda Commissioner Crowley into the shooting) released and we will continue in our plight to access that.
"The HET was only given a slideshow of this report and we as a family think we deserve access to it as it could reveal some answers. The fact the Irish government are holding so tight to it, makes us believe there must be something in there."
The McAnespie family now want the MoD to come forward now that their official record of events have been discredited to say what really happened on Sunday, February 21, 1988.
At present this seems unlikely as the MoD said it had co-operated with the HET inquiry and understands that this did not uncover any new evidence that would warrant further investigation.
