Pensioner's fatal stabbing unprovoked, inquest told

A Derry pensioner was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack yards from his home, an inquest heard today.

Norman Moffatt, 73, was stabbed in the abdomen as he walked home from collecting the morning paper in Coleraine, Co Derry, in January 2001 and died two months later in hospital.

The retired cleaner made no effort to defend himself from his assailant and police have still not established a motive for the killing.

Detective Superintendent Nigel Kyle told the Coleraine inquest: “It is our belief that this horrendous crime was carried out by someone who was totally unprovoked and I cannot understand where the motive comes from.”

A man was charged with the murder in 2002 but the case was not proceeded with to its conclusion by prosecutors.

A fresh appeal on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme produced a new witness, but the Public Prosecution Service felt there still was not enough evidence to proceed.

The victim, who lived at Circular Road, yards from Railway Road where he was stabbed, managed to make it back to his house where his wife and daughter called an ambulance.

Elderly wife Annie recalled: “He was sitting in the armchair in the living-room. He was in a lot of pain.”

His pullover had been stained with blood and he was suffering internal bleeding.

Coroner Brian Sherrard said: “Most of us can only imagine the terrible trauma to the family, first of all the very great shock of Mr Moffatt coming home in this condition... this near two-month period where nobody was entirely sure about the prognosis for Mr Moffatt ending in this very sad death.”

His intestines were cut and a later infection of the muscle around the spine which the knife had penetrated led to blood poisoning, kidney failure and death in the Ulster Hospital, near Belfast.

His son Barry Moffatt said: “It is a testing time at the minute, but now the inquest is over, it is hard knowing that it was unprovoked.”

Mr Kyle said police had done their utmost to catch the killer and the matter was considered at very senior levels of the organisation.

The inquiry has been exhausted unless fresh information is produced.

“Every aspect of this investigation was pursued in a very thorough and professional way; I am quite satisfied that there’s absolutely nothing else that can be pursued,” he added.

As well as relatives of the dead man, Democratic Unionist MP Gregory Campbell also attended the Coleraine inquest.

The court heard from the family how Mr Moffatt had been retired for around 12 years from his cleaning post at the AVX factory.

His main interests were the television and six lovebirds which he kept. The walk to the newspaper shop between 6am and 7am was a regular one.

Taxi man William McDonald was driving in the area at around the time, on January 26, 2001, and saw Mr Moffatt wearing a peaked cap.

He also recalled seeing somebody in dark clothing emerging from an alleyway off the Railway Road.

“I knew the way he came out there was something funny about that,” he added. “It was almost as if he was looking up, he had done something and he was looking to see was there anybody about, that’s the way I saw it.”

There was blood found near James Campbell’s insurance office. Police seized CCTV footage, although the quality was not as good as had been hoped.

A number of knives were found and at one stage pathologist Dr Alistair Bentley was shown one with a 15cm blade.

The coroner found death had been due to a stab wound to the abdomen and appealed for anybody with information to contact police.