Son identified father's body by his moustache

A man strangled and beaten to death in his home was so badly disfigured that his son could only identify him by his moustache, an inquest heard today.

Blood was sprayed throughout the Ross Cottages home in West Belfast after Michael Peter McParland, 44, was discovered lifeless and on fire in December 1999.

Mr McParland, a divorced father-of-three, was preparing to buy Christmas presents for his grandson when he was killed and dumped naked in his bedroom.

His son Gerard told the Belfast inquest: “The only way I recognised my father was by his moustache.”

Gerard Heaney dragged his body from the burning house. Mr McParland had blackened arms and fingers, one of his feet burned and blood discharged from his nose and ear.

Police have arrested five people and discovered a one-and-a-half-inch knife in a nearby property, but despite extensive forensic testing of blood and fingerprint samples there has been no prosecution.

His grieving son told the hearing that he had given up hope in the investigation which remains active, but afterwards made an emotional appeal for anybody with information to come forward.

“I would like people to come forward because I have been grieving for so long.

“He was brilliant, he was a dad, he had three sons and lost a son, David, through a car crash and lost his wife Elizabeth.”

The tragedy-stricken family has also suffered the loss of Michael McParland’s brother, murdered by the UVF in 1980.