Glenanne victim’s family set to meet Taoiseach

THE Taoiseach has agreed to meet the daughter of a victim of the Glenanne gang.

Convicted killer Garfield Beattie was detained near Portadown last week on suspicion of threatening to kill one of his victim’s daughters.

The issue was raised in the Dail yesterday by Aontu leader Peadar Toibin, who identified the alleged victim as one of his party’s councillors, Denise Mullen, the daughter of Denis Mullen, an SDLP activist shot dead in his home in 1975.

Mr Toibin said: “Denise, then aged just four, discovered her father’s lifeless body and was forced to stay beside him for two hours over fears there was a bomb inside the family home.

“Garfield Beattie was convicted for the murder of Denise’s father.”

Mr Toibin said the incident “has caused shocking fear and anxiety for Denise and her family”.

He added: “The threat was signed in the name of the East Tyrone UVF and specifically threatened the peace process.”

Responding, Taoiseach Micheal Martin said: “What the Glenanne gang did, we know, was the worst possible manifestation of evil by any gang, perpetrated on innocent people. I hold no truck with that sort of thing. I would be more than happy to meet them (the Mullen family).”

Beattie, who was released under the Good Friday Agreement, was part of the Glenanne gang, which included members of the RUC, UDR and UVF.

The gang was responsible for a sectarian murder campaign in the mi d-1970s b eli e v ed to have resulted in up to 120 deaths.

OFFER Micheal Martin