News

IRA victim's daughter calls for Villiers meeting

Shauna Moreland talks to the Irish News. Picture by Hugh Russell
Shauna Moreland talks to the Irish News. Picture by Hugh Russell

THE daughter of a west Belfast woman shot dead by the IRA after admitting to being an informer has called on Secretary of State Theresa Villiers and the PSNI Chief Constable to meet her.

Shauna Moreland has also urged Retired Police Officers Association boss Raymond White, former head of RUC Special Branch, to sit down with her.

Her mother Caroline Moreland was shot dead after being interrogated by the IRA in July 1994.

The mother-of-three was found close to the Fermanagh/Monaghan border.

It is believed she was recruited as a police informer while being questioned in Castlereagh RUC station two years earlier.

British agent Freddie Scappaticci is understood to have been in charge of the IRA's internal security unit when the 34-year-old was killed.

The decision to kill her was taken just weeks before the IRA called its 1994 ceasefire.

The dead woman's grieving daughter, who was 10 at the time, recently met Sinn Féin to discuss the case.

However, she also wants to know what efforts were made by authorities to save her mother's life.

"We want to know exactly what happened our mummy by those who arrested, held, and interrogated her in Castlereagh for seven days," she said.

"My mummy was obviously frightened and vulnerable. If our mummy was coerced into any kind of arrangement during her interrogation we want to know about it.

"If this is the case then why wasn't anything done to assist her and prevent her murder?"

Ms Moreland said they want to ask Theresa Villiers if authorities allowed her to be killed to protect others.

"We want to her to hear first hand our experience, what we have had to live with, the questions we as a family have, and to understand fully the role of all those involved in the murder of our mummy."

Liam Diver from KRW Law said: "If she was an informer or under the pay of Special Branch not only would Special Branch have a responsibility but also the Secretary of State.

"It is likely that members of the Retired Police Officers Association were also members of the Special Branch at the time and would have knowledge and the onus would be on them to meet the family."

Relatives for Justice spokesman Mark Thompson said it supports the Moreland family in their call and urged Ms Villiers and others to meet them as "there are significant questions to answer surrounding Caroline's killing".