Ballymurphy inquest: Children 'caught in Army crossfire'

Anne-Marie Young was pictured in 1971 beside the bullet holes in her children's bedroom

A mother has told the Ballymurphy inquest how her two small children narrowly avoided death under a hail of Army bullets.

She said it was a miracle neither of them died.

Anne-Marie Young's statement was read out in court because she has been excused from appearing in person for medical reasons.

The inquest is investigating the circumstances of 10 deaths in west Belfast over three days in 1971.

• Ballymurphy: Who were the victims?

On 9 August 1971, Mrs Young lived in a maisonette in Moyard with her husband George and their two children, George, three, and 18-month-old Anne-Marie.

Anne-Marie Young's daughter was 18 months old when the wall above her cot was hit by gunfire

They lived in flat 7U on the top floor at one end of the building.

She explained their children's bedroom directly overlooked two sandbagged sangars (temporary fortifications) of the Vere Foster and Henry Taggart Army base, then occupied by B Company 2 Para.

That day, the flat had been blessed by Fr Hugh Mullan who lived nearby, she said.

Fr Mullan was shot and killed later that day.

Mrs Young said when the shooting began, the two children were trapped in their cots in their bedrooms with dozens of bullets passing just an inch or two overhead.

Photographs from the time show bullet holes in the wall, and in the wood of their cots.

She said the couple crawled into the room on their hands and knees, and pulled the cots out with the children inside.

Mrs Young remembers each child had pieces of wood splinters in their hair.

At the time, George Young showed reporters how gunfire had splintered his children's wooden cots

Mrs Young also believes soldiers were shooting at her flat from two different directions.

The inquest has previously heard that soldiers from 2 Para Support Company and 2 Queens were in Springmartin, firing at Moyard flats.

It has also heard that soldiers in the sangars on the roof of Vere Foster school fired at the flats from the opposite direction.

'Firing at each other'

Both groups of soldiers said they believed they were returning fire at IRA gunmen.

Some witnesses, including Mrs Young, believe both groups of soldiers were inadvertently firing at each other with their flat caught in the middle.

There has also been evidence that senior officers had warned their troops not to fire at each other by accident that day.

The inquest has been shown maps and photographs which show such crossfire was possible.

Soldiers from the Parachute Regiment were based at Henry Taggart Army base in west Belfast

No gunmen, bodies or bloodstains were ever found in the flat, despite soldiers saying they had seen them.

Two soldiers who visited the flat the next day discussed their belief there had been gunmen there.

High-velocity gunfire

Mrs Young said the more senior of them conceded had there been a gunman, there would have been signs of blood.

The family flat was destroyed in the hail of high-velocity gunfire and they moved to live with Mrs Young's parents.

The family has not been attending the inquest proceedings.

Tuesday was the last scheduled day of evidence in the Ballymurphy Inquest, which began in November last year.

It has sat for almost 100 days of hearings since then.

However, the court heard statements were being prepared from at least three more former soldiers, and it is possible more evidence might be heard from them at a later date.