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Brother of 15-year-old murdered by IRA says he was "failed at every level"
By Maurice Fitzmaurice
The brother of a schoolboy shot dead by the IRA says he was failed “at every level”. Bernard Teggart was only 15 when he was abducted and murdered by the terror group in 1973. The IRA denied being involved in the killing, but admitted it and apologised in 2004 and again in 2008. However, the teenager’s death was raised again today when it was introduced at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry where it was described as the “most horrific” case of child abuse being considered by the probe. Bernard Teggart was abducted from St Patrick’s Training School in West Belfast before being shot in the head some hours later. He later died in hospital. Inquiry counsel said the killing is “the most horrific incident of child abuse to come before the HIA Inquiry”. It was revealed that the school authorities did not report the abduction to the police. But the inquiry counsel added: “Identifying potential systems failures by those who regulated or ran a training school does not take from the fact that it was the IRA who murdered Bernard Teggart, a 15-year-old boy said to have a mental age of an eight or nine-year-old.” The inquiry was told that Bernard was abducted along with his twin brother, Gerry, who had also been taken from the school the day before. The two brothers were taken to a number of houses and interrogated. Eight hours later Barney was found lying fatally wounded beside a roadside in north Belfast. Gerry Teggart was released by the killers. Bernard’s brother, John Teggart, told Belfast Live Bernard was “failed by the authorities at every level”. John is a leading figure in the campaign for justice for the victims of the Ballymurphy Massacre. Their father Daniel Teggart was one of 11 civilians shot dead by British soldiers over several days in 1971. He added: “His twin brother Gerry was taken out of the home before by the IRA, yet when they came back they were allowed to take him and Bernard and Bernard never came back so the Christian Brothers have a lot to answer for. The IRA denied it at first, then in 2004 they admitted it and apologised, then in 2008 they issued another apology and admitted there was nothing to justify his murder. “The police weren’t interested at the time either. Later on the HET looked at it, but the RUC ones involved wouldn’t help. It’s been very difficult.” Mr Teggart says the fact Bernard had no “father figure” in the wake of the Ballymurphy killings may have contributed to Bernard missing some school and ending up in St Patrick’s. He added: “Who knows, if my father hadn’t been murdered this may never have happened.” He says he wants the case re-investigated but has little faith in the PSNI’s ability or willingness to carry out cold-case reviews in the wake of a recent shake-up of how legacy cases are examined. Chief Constable George Hamilton said in February he expects an 18 to 24 month timeframe for legislation to create the Historical Investigations Unit (HIU) to run its course. The HIU emerged out of the Stormont House Agreement. One possible reason for the murder of the teenager reported yesterday was that he had witnessed an IRA robbery at a beer company and told the robbers who were threatening a beer lorry driver to leave him alone. However John Teggart has dismissed that theory. The HIA inquiry was set up in 2013 to investigate child abuse in residential institutions in Northern Ireland over a 73-year period, up to 1995. In total, the inquiry is expected to hear from more than 300 witnesses during the course of the public evidence sessions. It is required to complete its hearings and all investigative work by mid-summer 2016, and has to submit its report to the Northern Ireland executive by 17 January 2017.
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