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Michael McGibbon murder: Teenage daughter Seana hits out at father's killers

Seana McGibbon with mother Joanne McGibbon and rector of Holy Cross Church Fr Gary Donegan at a candle light vigil in April. Picture by Philip Walsh
Seana McGibbon with mother Joanne McGibbon and rector of Holy Cross Church Fr Gary Donegan at a candle light vigil in April. Picture by Philip Walsh Seana McGibbon with mother Joanne McGibbon and rector of Holy Cross Church Fr Gary Donegan at a candle light vigil in April. Picture by Philip Walsh

THE teenage daughter of dissident republican murder victim Michael McGibbon has urged people who know the identity of her father's killers to speak out.

Seana McGibbon, Mr McGibbon's eldest child, said her father was simply trying to protect his family when he agreed to go with the killers, a day after they had ordered him to come out of the house.

The 33-year-old taxi driver, a father-of-four, was shot in an alleyway in north Belfast in April by a group calling itself the 'IRA'.

Ms McGibbon, who was just 17 when her father was killed, told the BBC's Nolan Show yesterday that paramilitaries were "a law on to themselves".

"We are having to suffer for their actions," she said. "They are doing it on their own people, and it's not fair at all."

She said the people who ordered her father to meet them did not explain why.

"He went to protect us, not to go down and get murdered," she said. "It was to protect his family and to prove that he was innocent, and an innocent man."

She appealed to people who know the identity of his killers to come forward.

"Everybody knows who the criminals are and it's just they are afraid to speak out," she said.