Leo Norney: Soldier wanted to 'waste somebody' before teen died

The Army veteran known as M2 said the Norney family deserve to know the truth about what happened the day Leo died

A soldier who was at the scene when a teenager was shot dead in west Belfast spoke of wanting to "waste somebody" shortly beforehand, a former soldier has told an inquest.

Leo Norney, 17, was killed in the Turf Lodge area in September 1975.

Soldiers from the Black Watch regiment said he had opened fire on them. But residents said he was the innocent victim of an unprovoked attack.

The original inquest in 1976 returned an open verdict.

On Monday, the former soldier, referred to as M2, told an inquest in Banbridge that he had falsified his previous statements and that his patrol had not been fired on the day Mr Norney was killed.

The witness said he wanted Leo's family to know the truth about what happened more than 40 years ago.

The bulk of his evidence centred around the actions of Cpl John Ross MacKay, who died in 2015.

Rifle shots fired

M2 said that after an attack on the soldiers' base in which no one was injured, he returned to his room where two other soldiers, referred to as M1 and M3, were there with Cpl MacKay.

In a statement to the inquest, read out by counsel for the coroner Ian Skelt, M2 said: "I recall him telling me that we were going to waste somebody tonight.

"I can't recall his precise language, but it was words to that effect. I recall he used the word waste.

"I immediately responded by saying I would not be involved in what he was suggesting and that he must be mad."

In the statement, M2 said he did not recall Cpl MacKay saying who the target would be or where or how it would happen.

M2's statement described the events of the patrol before the incident in which Leo was killed.

The witness described being at a security fence in west Belfast and glancing over to Cpl MacKay and seeing him firing his rifle several times towards an area known as Shepherd's Path.

He said he did not recall hearing or seeing any other gunshots before Cpl MacKay fired his rounds.

M2 said M1 also fired a single round of his rifle shortly after at a Mini car parked close by, but added he could not recall where the car was struck.

He recalled being ordered to take cover at waste ground and hearing a person groaning from the direction of Shepherd's Path.

"I looked towards the area the noise came from and saw a soldier who I recall being Cpl MacKay standing beside or on Shepherd's Path."

'Violent and unpredictable'

He said he saw a soldier, who he believed was Cpl MacKay, point his rifle towards the ground and fire one round which he believed struck the concrete path.

M2 told the hearing he did not see a body from his position, but recalled hearing Cpl MacKay kicking an unseen object on the ground.

When asked by the coroner why he gave a false narrative of events, M2 said he was scared of Cpl MacKay who was a "violent and unpredictable person".

"I had just seen what I had seen and I wasn't going to put myself in a position of going out on patrol with someone who had did that," he said.

"If he had done that to somebody that he didn't know, what was the next thing? He had a lot of influence, I wasn't prepared to put myself in harm's way."

M2 told the inquest that before now, he had been scared to tell the truth.

But he added: "If I could turn the clock back, it would not have happened.

"I am deeply sorry Leo Norney died and his family had to suffer."