Body of ex-soldier ‘should be exhumed’

THE family of a nationalist councillor gunned down 30 years ago in the North want the body of a former soldier at the centre of the murder inquiry exhumed.

David Jordan, 54, died in November 2001 after allegedly breaking down and confessing the names of Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers whom he claimed shot dead a nationalist councillor nearly 30 years ago.

At the time of his death, it was claimed Mr Jordan, a heavy drinker, suffered a heart attack.

Police have launched an inquiry into the killing of Patrick Kelly, 33, whose weighted-down body was found in a lake in Co Fermanagh.

He went missing three weeks earlier after closing a bar in the village of Trillick, Co Tyrone, on July 24, 1974.

Nobody has ever been charged with the murder, but Mr Kelly’s family, including his brother Peter, a Sinn Féin councillor in Omagh, claim there was collusion involving members of the security forces.

UDR soldiers were in the area at the time of Mr Kelly’s disappearance.

It has been claimed that before he was found dead at his cottage home near Omagh, Mr Jordan revealed the names of two UDR men whom he alleged shot dead Mr Kelly after stopping him on a roadway.

Former soldiers are expected to be interviewed as part of the fresh probe.

Relatives claim they have no confidence in the inquiry and are going to the High Court in Belfast for a judicial review in a bid to establish an independent investigation.