Leo Norney

Leo Norney 17 years, Ardmonagh Parade, Turf Lodge, West Belfast, shot dead at Turf Lodge on 13 September 1975, by members of the British army's Black Watch Regiment.

Leo Norney was the second youngest in a family with seven children. He attended St Peter's Primary School, Raglan Street, and St Peter's Secondary School, Britton’s Parade. After leaving school he found work at Belfast’s General Post Office as a messenger boy. One of his sister’s described him ‘as a bit of a comedian, who was always full of life, and loved nothing better than getting to the Clonard disco on Saturday nights. He was just a normal teenager.’

On Saturday 13 September 1975, Leo began work at the GPO at 8.30am and worked until 12.30pm. After finishing work he went home and did not go out again until 7pm. Leaving the house that evening he told his mother he was going to a party, and if he was late would stay with relatives, but if there was no party he would be home at his usual time of 12.30am.

However, the party did not come of, so he spent the evening with friends, and called at the home of his older brother. When he left his brother’s he and his friends bought some cider and drank it in a derelict house in the Lower Falls Road area.

Around 10.50pm Leo decided to head homewards and got a black taxi on the Falls Road. His intention was to call on his girlfriend who was baby-sitting in Turf Lodge. The taxi travelled up the Falls Road before turning onto the Whiterock Road, where members of a British army foot patrol stopped it. Leo and the other passengers were taken out of the vehicle and searched before the taxi was allowed to go on its way. The taxi continued up the Whiterock Road for some distance before Leo asked the driver to stop and got out. It was around 11.10pm.

Leo’s girlfriend speaking in 1975 said ‘His usual procedure was to come by taxi and he would get off at Shepherds Path, and walk along the path to Ardmonagh Gardens where I always baby-sit on a Saturday night.’

The Shepherds path ran from the Whiterock Road to Turf Lodge housing estate. On one side of the path was a high fence surrounding a school, on the other side of the path, sloping away from it, was open ground. When the Leo was half way across the path shots rang out and he fell. Those in the taxi he had just got out of heard the shots, so did his girlfriend.

The shots were fired by members of a British army patrol from the open ground on one side of Shepherds Path, ahead of Leo and to his left. Four teenagers who stumbled on the scene moments after the shooting were forced to lie on the open ground by the soldiers. The teenagers, although ordered to keep their heads down raised them high enough to see the soldiers kick and abuse a motionless body on the Shepherds Path. The also saw the soldiers trailing the body towards a military ambulance which arrived at the scene.

At 4am on Sunday 14 September, British soldiers in armoured cars arrived in force at Norney family home to carry out raid operation. Mr and Mrs Norney were still unaware of their son’s fate and believed he was staying with relatives. The British army raiding party remained at the Norney home for sometime but did not inform his parents their son was dead.

Several hours later Mrs Norney went out to look for her son. She called at the homes of several relatives but none of them knew his whereabouts. Unable to find her son Mrs Norney decided to go home, hoping her son had returned in the meantime. As she travelled back home in a black taxi she over heard two women passengers talking about a youth who had been shot on the Whiterock Road the previous night. The women believed the youth’s name was Smith. Mrs Norney did not connect the shooting to her son.

Shortly after 2.30pm a local Catholic priest arrived at the Norney home and informed them their son had been shot dead. The Norney family’s tragedy was further compounded by their difficulty in finding out exactly where their son’s body was. Mr Norney was first told his son’s body was in the Royal Victoria Hospital, but when he telephoned the hospital was told the body was not there. Further phone calls to the RUC lead him on a fruitless quest to other hospitals in Belfast and to the city’s morgue before he eventually found his son's body at 5.00pm laying on a trolley in a hallway in the RVH. Mr Norney inspected his son’s body and discovered that his hands and face were badly bruised.

The British army Press Office later issued a statement claiming one of their ‘patrols was fired on by two gunmen, and they returned fire. One man was killed and another ran away carrying the guns with him.’

Challenged by relatives and others for the proof of their accusations, the British army said ‘We have positive evidence to substantiate our original claim about the shooting.’

An inquest into the killing of Leo Norney was held in September 1975. The British soldiers responsible for the killing did not attend the hearing, and were known only by the letters of the alphabet. The soldiers in their statements, which were read out by a military representative, repeated the claims that Leo was a gunman, and that a single shot was fired at them.

An RUC detective, who apparently accepted a shot was fired at the patrol, disputed the soldiers’ claims on the circumstances. He said the shot fired at the soldiers could not have come from where Leo Norney was walking. He also said ‘If the shot did come from inside the school, he could find no spent rounds to prove it.’

A forensic expert told the hearing tests carried out on the hands and clothes of the youth revealed no evidence he had handled a gun before he was shot.

The inquest was told seven shots were fired at Leo Norney. He had been hit three times. Once while he was standing and twice as he fell. The bullets truck him in the heart, the lung and stomach. No explanations were submitted at the hearing to show how Leo’s body received the extensive bruising to his hands and face.

The hearing was told that on the back of one of Leo hands were tattooed the letters F.A.P., which stood for Faith and Peace.

The Coroner said ‘Leo Norney was the victim of tragic circumstances, and was an innocent passer-by who suffered a terrible end.’

The jury returned an open verdict.

In July 1976 the Department of Public Prosecutions told the Norney family no charges would be brought against any of the British soldiers responsible because of insufficient evidence.

In April 1977 the Norney family were awarded a small amount in compensation for the killing of their son. The Norney family lawyer said the award ‘is a term of settlement that the defendants accepted in open court and that Mr Norney was a totally innocent party.’

No British soldiers were ever charged in connection with the killing of Leo Norney.