THE family of a North Belfast man are calling on the public to come out and support the Time for Truth rally this Sunday.

Michael Hayes (27) was shot nine times in the upper body and legs by members of a Royal Marine patrol near his home in Spamount Street on October 1, 1972.

He was coming home from a night out at a social club to raise money for a minibus at Edmund Rice Christian Brothers School in Pim Street when he was shot. 

The soldiers claimed Mr Hayes, who was married with two sons, aged two and three, was a gunman but no residue was found on him to suggest he had been firing a weapon.

The killing was investigated by the Royal Military Police but the Director of Public Prosecutions recommended no further action to be taken.

Speaking ahead of Sunday's march, Michael's son Kevin said: "My father was walking home from a charity event when he was challenged by the British Army.

"It was late at night, the early hours of the morning on 1 October. They said that he had a gun and shot him nine times.

"This was the first time that they had used night sight scopes on their rifles. 

"He was branded a gunman but they tested his clothes and there was no residue on them and there was no weapon found at the scene. He was a completely innocent man."

Kevin said that at the time, his mother received £25,000 compensation but the family have yet to find out who paid the compensation and if it was the MoD.

"We want an apology," Kevin said. "We are not interested in seeking compensation but finding out who paid my mother that £25,000 will help us in being able to have the truth about our father's killing told.

"We have been working with the Pat Finucane Centre and Pádraig Ó Muirigh solicitors to find out more information about that.

"We have been refused a new inquest because they have said that they will only grant one if there is new evidence. The team at the Pat Finucane Centre have been over to Kew Gardens (in London) to search the records and see if they can find documents which could reopen our case, or if a new witness came forward, or if in the unlikely event that one of the soldiers had an attack of conscience before he died, then they might come clean."

While the family had received a report from the PSNI's flawed Historical Enquiries Team, Kevin said that it wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.

"They filled the HET report with incident reports unrelated to the case to bulk it out. I was very disappointed with it and there was a lot of things we had to ask to be corrected because it was deemed an historical document.

"In all honesty, I was disappointed with the HET report and found the whole process a waste of time."

At the time of his father's death, Kevin told us that the soldiers involved were taken away for three days and trained in what to say by the military police before the RUC could interview them. 

"They were coached on what to say and all of their statement nearly enough matched so there was no proper investigation at the time."

Kevin said that if the British government's legacy bill is passed in the House of Lords, there will be no opportunity for them to correct the historical record regarding his father's killing. 

"All we want is an apology. We don't have a criminal case as when I went to the Public Record Office, they issued me with the statements from the soldiers without redacting them. Soldier C killed my father and he is now dead. 

"A lot of my father's immediate family have passed away. They were waiting on an apology and for him to be declared innocent, my grandmother passed without seeing her son declared innocent and if the British government have their way, we will never see him declared innocent."

The Time for Truth rally will leave at 12 noon on Sunday 11 September from Divis Tower, the McGurks Memorial, North Queen Street and Cormac Square before making its way to City Hall.