Children left terrified by loyalist gun attack on home, trial is told
A man whose south Belfast home was attacked in 1988 by loyalists described how as a child he tried to protect his younger siblings by covering them with a blanket “until the shooting stopped.”
A statement made by Gary Mcallister was read at t he non-jury trial of Winston ‘Winkie’ Rea, who denies 19 offences from 1973 to 1996.
The 69-year old loyalist, from Springwell Gardens in Groomsport, faces offences, including membership of the Red Hand Commando and conspiracy to murder.
One of the offences is a charge of conspiring to murder Malachy Mcallister on October 2, 1988. His oldest child Gary, who now lives in the US, was 12 when the family’s home in the Lower Ormeau area was attacked.
In a statement, Gary Mcallister said that on the night of the shooting, he and his three siblings were being babysat by their grandmother as their parents were on a last-minute holiday.
Saying he had a “very clear and vivid recollection of that night”, Mr Mcallister remembered his brother Jamie was out playing football with friends while his baby brother Sean was upstairs asleep. His sister Nicola, a toddler at the time, was also in the house.
He said: “We were sitting in the living room, we were waiting on our favourite programme to come on the television, as part of our Sunday evening routine.”
Mr Mcallister said that when Sean starting crying upstairs, he went upstairs to tend to the baby, with his younger sister “toddling” up the stairs with him.
The statement said: “The next thing I heard was an almighty crash and the sound of the front living room window coming in. It sounded like a sledgehammer.
“I peeked out from between the Venetian blinds and looked down at where I thought the sound had come from, which was at our front door.
“I could see a man standing at the gate of our front path on the street. He was wearing a clear Halloween mask covering his face. He seen me peeking out and gestured up towards me with his hand, pointing up towards the room were we where, by which stage I could hear gunshots riddling through the house.
“As the man pointed towards me he leapt across the gatepost which had been decaying and loose, and he toppled the cement cap off it.
“I then ran away from the window and went back to the bed where Nicola and Sean were, and covered the blanket over three of us until the shooting stopped.
“We were all crying. I knew that something bad had happened, but was trying to keep the others calm and safe, but I was terrified. I’m not sure who came to help us, but someone came up to the three of us.”
Mr Mcallister recalled: “As we were being brought downstairs, we passed the upstairs bathroom, which was next door to my parents’ bedroom, and as I looked in I could see it had been riddled with gunfire. All of the wood had been shattered. I knew that the gunmen deliberately fired his gun up towards us — possibly in response to the gesture of the man with the Halloween mask who had seen me.”
Mr Mcallister’s statement also revealed that in the aftermath of the gun attack, the family didn’t return to their home but instead stayed with relatives, before leaving Belfast and moving to America, where he stayed.
Mr Mcallister added: “I had grave problems sleeping for years and years afterwards.”
Rea denies any involvement in a plot to murder Malachy Mcallister in 1988. The prosecution case is based on interviews Rea allegedly gave to the US Boston College. At hearing.