THE POLICE OFFICER WHOSE FATHER WAS MURDERED — ‘When Rev Latimer described Martin McGuinness as near to a saint, it was like a knife going through my heart’

David joined the RUC when he was 18 and served 34 years, ending his career in the PSNI. Other members of his family served in the security forces. His father was shot dead as he returned home after UDR training. “I remember every minute of what happened. I remember going to identify him and half his head blown off. It’s something you don’t forget. I am aware of the people who did it, members of the PIRA, and I believe I know the person who ordered it be done.”

His father’s killers were never prosecuted. “When you look at some of these politicians, and I know that some of them were involved in terrorism — it’s difficult. You hear people now talking on the news, saying the RUC were part of the problem. I didn’t join to be part of the problem, I joined because I wanted to serve the community.”

His wife Violet added: “Your worry is that when the history of this is all written, the RUC will be put in the same bracket as the paramilitaries, the terrorists.” David agreed: ‘I wasn’t a combatant, I was a police officer.”

David’s mother was a widow for 31 years and from the day her husband was murdered, she never spoke his name. A decade

after his death, David and Violet took out their wedding album to look at with his mother, hoping that the photographs of her husband in it would encourage her to talk about him. Violet said: “It came to a photo with him in it and she just turned the page. No comment. It came to the group photograph at the end of the album, and she started pointing to this one and that one and saying something about them.

“She pointed to some and said they had died. David pointed to his dad and said, ‘Mum, what about that man there?’ She just turned to David and looked him straight in the eye and said, ‘It’s a long time since I’ve seen him’. That was it. She never, ever mentioned it again. That was heart-breaking.”

David was initially angry about his father’s murder, but this subsided after a few months. Violet said: “We were taught the difference between right and wrong. You knew in your heart of hearts, going out and looking for revenge was not the Christian way to do things. We were taught to turn the other cheek.”

Unlike many police families, David and Violet told their children what their father’s job was and said not to conceal it from their friends. Violet said: “We al

ways thought what if, God forbid, anything happened to David when he was out on duty and then I had told them that daddy was a postman for example. I was going to have to turn round and tell them I’d been lying all along.”

David worked long hours, but Violet received support from their congregation and other police wives. She said: “That support did help, but it was still scary. One Christmas Eve, I had to do Santa Claus because he was out working. I can remember me sitting looking at the hands of the clock and praying: ‘Lord, just let us get to Christmas Day with nothing happening.’ And watching the hands go from twelve into Christmas morning and thanking God that we’d got to Christmas and nothing had happened. I did have my faith to call on. But prayers weren’t always answered.”

David and Violet thought that some in PCI did not fully understand the experiences of victims and those who worked in the security forces. Violet believed that during the Troubles, Presbyterian leaders in the Republic should have pressured their government to pursue paramilitaries who had fled across the border. David recalled attending a function and speaking with a former Moderator. “He found out my father was killed. He asked me about a particular member of Sinn Fein and I told him what I thought. He whispered in my ear and said: “You’re too close to it.” I thought: ‘Isn’t that an awful thing to say?’ He wanted me to forget about this man’s past.” Violet added: “That person had not experienced what David had experienced. I think if he had experienced it, he wouldn’t have said that.”

They were also upset by what Rev David Latimer (left) said at Martin McGuinness’ funeral. David said: “It was just like a knife going through my heart when I heard the Rev Latimer describe Martin McGuinness as near to a saint. It really was, to the point that I could have left the Church at that stage. I phoned Church House (PCI headquarters) about that because I thought it was an awful, awful statement.”

Violet agreed, “We were hoping Church House would say something (in response to Latimer) but that never really did come.” David reflected: “It might be easier for people to reconcile who weren’t directly involved.

“Whenever people talk about reconciliation, I think about the people that were killed on the border because they were supposedly touts.

“I remember going and lifting their bodies and seeing cigarette burns on their faces and a hole in their head.

“How do you reconcile with people who do that? I’ve no issue with reconciliation. But it’ll be reconciliation without forgetting what happened.”