THE INQUEST which found Leo Norney – the 17-year-old shot dead by the British Army’s Black Watch regiment on 13 September 1975 – entirely innocent, showed a catalogue of failures by the British Army for letting his killer go on patrol drunk on the night of the shooting, after having threatened that he was going to ‘waste’ someone.

It also showed how the RUC and British Army tried desperately to maintain the lie.

Leo Norney was on his way to see his girlfriend who lived in Turf Lodge the night he was killed. He had taken a black taxi going up the Whiterock Road where the taxi was searched by other soldiers who found nothing and let it pass.

Leo got out of the taxi at the top of the Whiterock and made his way along Shepherd’s Path. He was shot dead by British soldier Lance Corporal John Ross MacKay.

Paul Butler from Relatives for Justice said McKay and the three others on patrol with him concocted a story which blackened Leo’s name for 50 years.

“After McKay shot Leo, himself and the other soldiers concocted a story that they were confronted by two gunmen who opened fire at them. McKay said he shot one of the ‘gunmen’ and the other fled and stole a British rifle."

Paul said months after Leo’s shooting McKay and his gang were caught planting ammunition in people’s cars and were sentenced but the prosecution service refused to look into the events of Leo’s death. Years later Relatives for Justice discovered in the National Archives that the head of the RUC and the head of the British Army tried to maintain the lie by saying Leo had gun residue on his hands.

Following the planting of ammunition, McKay was convicted and got five years and two others in the four man patrol were also convicted.

“Relatives for Justice went over to the National Archives and we discovered correspondence between the head of the RUC and the British Army talking about Father Faul’s booklet which spoke about the inconsistencies in the soldier's account and they talking about the need to find evidence to say Leo was a gunman. They were talking about trying to find ballistic fibres on Leo to show he was a gunman but of course there wasn’t anything and that effort to try and blacken Leo’s name failed.”

The truth came to light in the inquest.

Paul Butler said: “In the latest inquest, a former soldier referred to as ‘M2’– who was soldier B from the foot patrol that killed Leo – came forward and said that McKay had deliberately killed Leo Norney. 

“He said he wanted to clear his conscience and said the rest of the soldiers were around 19 or 20 but McKay was 25 and was a bully who would intimidate them. It also came out that McKay had just been released from prison three months before he shot Leo for beating up a policeman in Scotland.

“An anonymous letter from a member of the Black Watch regiment said McKay was drunk before he went out on patrol that night and that he said he wanted to ‘waste’ somebody.”

Paul added that the coroner’s final verdict was that Leo would still be alive if the Army had kicked out McKay and noted that in a twist of fate McKay had died on the 40th anniversary of Leo’s murder.

“The coroner said the British Army shouldn’t have let him back in to the Army, they shouldn’t have had him out on patrol drunk. He was a danger to the public and if he had been kicked out of the Army, Leo would still be alive.”