Gerard Hampson inquest: After over 14 years, we’ve been told what we knew from day one, say devastated family
Posted by Jim on February 10, 2022
Relatives of Gerard Hampson outside court on Wednesday
Allison Morris, Crime Correspondent
February 09 2022 06:59 PM
When Gerard Hampson stopped calling his children in the November of 2007, they knew almost immediately that something was wrong.
While known to friends as Shorty, his family called him “Buzby” a character from the BT advertisements of the 1980s, whose slogan was ‘make someone happy with a phone call’.
He would have called his children every day and would have regularly dropped into relatives’ homes unannounced for a cup of tea and a chat.
A former republican prisoner, friends described him a ‘creature of habit’ with a routine that once broken immediately aroused suspicions.
More than that the last relative to have spoken to Mr Hampson was unsettled by his behaviour.
Mary Hampson told an inquest into the Derry man’s death, that before the end of November 2007 her uncle called to her home in an agitated state. She asked him was he okay, but he said he wasn’t and there were “boys from Derry” looking for him and he did not know where to go.
Mary said her uncle seemed to be “in real fear” and talked about going “over the hill”, a phrase she took to mean going over the Glenshane Pass.
Mary was close to her uncle, and begged him to stay in her house, but he left in a car with a man, who was later to become a key suspect in his disappearance.
After a week of no contact and being unable to reach their father by phone, the family made their first police complaint.
But it didn’t go as planned and police dismissed their concerns. Mr Hampson’s daughter Bridgeen Carlin said: “When we reported this to the police and asked for help, we were ignored. When we needed compassion and support, we were met with contempt”.
For the families it has been a 14-year wait for answers.
Clarity was finally given by Coroner Joe McCrisken on Wednesday when he said the death was “a result of the action of a third party” and not suicide as the family was originally told.
It’s been a lengthy battle for truth. Having been first told that their father was ‘on the run’ and then later that he had taken his own life, they were determined to get to the truth.
The inquest heard that in 2007 a forensic report had linked Mr Hampson to a kidnapping earlier that year in Mullingar in Co Westmeath.
The PSNI originally took the view that Mr Hampson went to ground as he was wanted for questioning.
Mr Hampson was aware that police wanted to speak to him, and met his solicitor to discuss the options available to him, but before a date for interview could be arranged, he had disappeared.
The day before his disappearance, he called one of his children and asked would they drop him off a phone charger and some clothes. They dropped the items off to a local bar and that was the last time he was seen alive by his children.
The family later found he’d spent that night with two men – who would become suspects in his murder – in Magherafelt, before travelling to Swatragh.
His mobile phone was used at 9.58pm on November 30, and never used again.
One of the men in his company later claimed to have dropped the deceased off at a bus stop.
Records show that by late December 2007 police changed the status of the investigation into Mr Hampson’s disappearance from a missing person to a wanted person.
One family member said they were told by a PSNI officer that their father was “probably in France or Spain being looked after by his friends”.
On December 18, Garda officers’ detained the two men last seen in Mr Hampson’s company at Connolly Station in Dublin.
One of them was found to be in the possession of a false passport and two mobile phones. When asked about Mr Hampson his first comments to Garda officers were that if PSNI did not have him, then “someone has done him in”.
The family’s frustrations meanwhile were growing; they knew the character of the man and said he would never have left them worrying over the Christmas holiday period.
On January 9, a man out walking his dog found Mr Hampson’s naked body washed up on the shores of Lough Neigh, near Toomebridge.
The witness who lived and worked in the area said when he found the body he sent for a priest and also sprinkled Holy Water on the corpse.
The man said that if a body had been placed in the Moyola River it could wash down into Lough Neagh
The inquest later heard that statements were given by two men in 2015.
Witness Y claimed that Witness X told him that he and two others had killed Mr Hampson saying it was “the hardest thing he ever had to do holding that man under the water”.
Witness X and Witness Y refused to give evidence to the coroner in person. Mr McCrisken said the only statutory powers he had was to fine them £1,000 each, which he did.
The other two suspects in the case are now dead – both took their own lives.
Witness X told Witness Y that the one of the men had taken a secret to his grave. The witness also said if it came out that he had spoken he would not be able to stay in Northern Ireland as “someone is going to shoot me”.
Mr McCrisken commended the Hampson family for their “patience and fortitude” over the last number of years.
He added that it was unfortunate that no one had been made amenable for Mr Hampson’s death.
Mrs Carlin said she was overwhelmed, saying it had taken 14 years to be “told what we knew from day one”.
Following a Police Ombudsman’s report released in 2016, eight PSNI officers were disciplined in relation to the case.
There were two arrests in 2016 and 2019 but no charges due to lack of evidence.
Throughout the 14 year battle for truth the family were supported by Sara Duddy of the Pat Finucane Centre, who has lived and breathed every step of the family’s campaign for truth.
She said it was “emotional” to be in the inquest court when the verdict was delivered.
She added that the family were “exhausted, but delighted to have answers”.
“It’s been challenging. They’ve had to listen to some very difficult evidence, they will now be taking time to consider the coroner’s written verdict and take stock and consider what their next step is,” Ms Duddy said.