Moy: Inquest opens into UVF McKearney and Fox murders

Bernie McKearney (third left) was joined by relatives at the inquest hearing on Monday

A woman whose husband and parents were murdered in separate loyalist attacks has told an inquest that her family's lives were "turned upside down".

Bernie McKearney's husband Kevin and his uncle John McKearney were shot at their family butcher shop in Moy, County Tyrone, in January 1992.

Nine months later Mrs McKearney's parents Charles and Teresa Fox were killed in their home in Moy.

The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) said it carried out all four murders.

The families of those who were murdered held photographs as they walked into the coroner's court

The shootings were investigated by the Historical Enquiries Team, a police unit set up to examine Troubles-era killings.

It found that the double murders had been linked.

On Monday a long-awaited inquest into all four deaths began in Craigavon in County Armagh.

In her opening statement, Mrs McKearney said Kevin, 32, was "a loving husband and father" who "worked hard to provide for us".

"Our lives were never the same again," she said.

Kevin and Jack McKearney were attacked in the family butcher shop in Moy

Kevin McKearney, a father of four, was working behind the counter of the butcher shop on 3 January 1992 when a gunman walked in and shot him several times.

He died at the scene.

His 68-year-old uncle John - known as Jack - was shot and seriously wounded in the attack.

He died from his injuries three months later on 4 April 1992.

The following September Charles and Teresa Fox, aged 63 and 54 respectively, who had a family of six children, were shot dead in their home.

Charles and Teresa Fox were found shot dead at their home

Their bodies were discovered by two of their children the morning after the attack.

The inquest heard that the kitchen window had been broken and the telephone wires to their home had been cut.

Relatives of all four murder victims have said in the past that they believe collusion between paramilitaries and security forces may have been a factor in the killings.

At the inquest Kevin McKearney's son Cathal said: "What we would like is truth and justice for Daddy and some answers as to why he was allowed to be killed."

Before the inquest began the McKearney and Fox families gathered with pictures of their loved ones and walked into the courthouse together.