Kingsmills inquest: Teenage victim cried out for mother before being shot

A teenager murdered at Kingsmills was crying out for his mother at the moment a gunman "finished him off" by shooting him in the face, the inquest into the victims' deaths has heard.

Robert Chambers was one of 10 Protestant workers taken from their minibus and shot dead by IRA gunmen in January 1976.

After checking their religion, the gunmen ordered one Catholic to leave.

The events were recalled by the only survivor, Alan Black, on Wednesday.

He fought back tears as he listened to a clerk reading out two statements he had given to the police shortly after the attack and two more recent statements he gave as part of the campaign to have the inquest into the ten deaths reopened.

He described Robert Chambers, an 18-year-old apprentice, as "a lovely lad".

Mr Black had been a fitter in Glenanne Factory and early on the day of the murders he had been working in a field along with the teenager.

Ten men died after gunmen ambushed their minibus in 1976

He recalled how Robert Chambers had been pleading with him to teach him to drive.

"I eventually agreed to teach him - just at the weekends," he said.

"He gave me a big hug and danced around the field and that's my last memory of him.

"Just a few hours later he was lying across my legs, fatally injured, crying out for his mother."

Mr Black was distressed as the clerk reached a section in the statement in which he described how a gunman had walked up to Robert Chambers and shot him again, this time in the face.

Mr Black, who was hit up to 18 times, lay under him and pretended to be dead.

The inquest is continuing.