MOLLOY FAMILY APPEAL FOR INFORMATION
The family of John Molloy who was murdered exactly 18 years ago (Sunday 10 August 1996) have made a fresh appeal for information that could lead to the perpetrators being brought to justice.
John was just 18 years old when he was attacked by a group of men and women yards from his home off the Landsdowne Road in north Belfast.
On Sunday the family dedicated a bench in the garden of the WAVE Trauma Centre, where John’s mother Linda has worked as a councilor. to John’s memory and to all other young men and women like John who have had their lives taken needlessly throughout the Troubles.
At the ceremony Linda read a poem that she had written after John’s murder.
Addressing the person who murdered John she said:
“Seed of my womb
Now cold in a tomb
And you in your room
Do you dream, scream?
The dirty deed is done
How long will you run?”
John’s brother Stephen who was 10 years old when his brother was murdered said:
“I am confident that there are people out there who know what happened to John or may have heard his murder discussed.
I would say to them that it is never too late to do the right thing.
I cannot stress enough the devastating impact the loss of John has had on my family.”
He went on to call on the new Chief Constable of the PSNI to look again at the case.
“I call on the Chief Constable to revisit the investigation into this murder and I would seek an assurance that it will be fresh, open and transparent.
My family feel very let down by previous investigations and we don’t want what happened to John simply to be swept under the Troubles carpet”.
Professor Jean Orr, the Chair of the WAVE Trauma Centre, said:
“People who say that we must simply draw a line under the Past and move on should talk to the Molloy family and countless others like them across Northern Ireland and beyond.
We cannot put the responsibility for dealing with the Past onto victims and survivors.
Any pious talk of a ‘shared future’ is meaningless until politicians get round a table to find a way to deal with the terrible legacy that John Molloy’s family have to live with now and into the future”.