Second Sinn Féin candidate was in bar when McCartney was attacked

A SECOND Sinn Féin election candidate was in the Belfast pub where IRA murder victim Robert McCartney was attacked.

The party disclosed that Deirdre Hargey was still inside Magennis’s Bar when police first arrived. But she denied seeing the brawl leading to the horrific knife attack which left Mr McCartney, 33, dying on the street outside.

Ms Hargey, 23, is a community development worker due to stand in May’s local government elections. She said: “I did not witness the fracas in the bar, or the incident outside the bar.”

Cora Groogan, another Sinn Féin candidate, confirmed this weekend that she was in the bar.

With Sinn Féin facing unprecedented pressure over the murder, the link to two of the party’s new generation of political representatives will cause the party huge embarrassment.

Even though the Provos have expelled three volunteers and Sinn Féin has suspended seven members over the January 30 attack, frustrated detectives have yet to charge anyone because no one has agreed to testify.

Ms Hargey confirmed last night: “I was present when the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) arrived in the bar.

"I have subsequently given a statement of my account to my solicitor with instructions for it to be forwarded to the Police Ombudsman.” But Robert McCartney’s sister Catherine dismissed this course of action as worthless.

“They should stop giving notes, this isn’t misbehaviour in the classroom,” she said.