PPS to make prosecution decision on two Derry legacy cases
Decisions to be made one day before Legacy Act deadline
The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) will inform the families of Annette McGavigan and Billy McGreanery today, whether they intend to prosecute the two soldiers who shot and killed them.
The decision will come just one day before the May 1 deadline that will see conflict-related investigations stopped by the Legacy Act.
Annette McGavigan was 14 years old when she was shot dead by a member of the Royal Green Jackets Regiment, ciphered Soldier B, in the Bogside area of Derry on the 6th of September 1971 as she watched a riot in the Bogside area.
She had been let out of school early that day due to the disturbances and was still wearing her school uniform.
There is a large mural of her in the heart of the Bogside in Derry. The shoes that Annette was wearing when she was killed are on display at the Museum of Free Derry along with her school uniform and schoolbooks.
Martin McGavigan, Annette’s brother said: “Annette’s murder devastated our family. My mother and father never recovered.
When we came home from school our mother would be just sitting on the landing holding Annette’s clothes and crying.
“My father would spend hours standing and staring at Annette’s mural in the Bogside.
“Annette wanted to be a nurse. She had so many possibilities in front of her, and those were destroyed on that day.”
Billy McGreanery was shot dead by a member of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, ciphered soldier A, at the junction of Eastway, Lonemoor Road and Westland Street late in the evening of September 14, 1971.
He underwent surgery at Altnagelvin hospital and died approx. four hours later on during the early hours of Wednesday, September 15, 1971. He was 41 years old at the time of his death.
Billy McGreanery and Marjorie Roddy, Billy’s nephew and niece said: “Both our daddy and grandmother tried their best to clear Billy's name and get justice.
“When this failed my father took it very badly as he felt he had failed Billy and their mother. Two years and four months after Billy's killing our father Desmond was also dead at just 46 years old due to drink brought on by the murder and lies told to defend the killing.
“The devastating impact of Billy’s death cannot be overstated. It effectively left us as orphans within two years, as we wholly believe had Billy not been shot that night, our father would not have died so soon from a broken heart.”