1,000 pay their respects to dead teenager

More than 1,000 people came out to pay their respects to Thomas McDonald, the 16year-old Protestant who was knocked down and …

More than 1,000 people came out to pay their respects to Thomas McDonald, the 16year-old Protestant who was knocked down and killed in north Belfast on Tuesday.

Ms Alison McKeown (32) has been charged with the murder of Mr McDonald, while two others, including a 15-year-old boy, have been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

A private service was held at the McDonald home in the White City area of north Belfast yesterday morning. Initially, hundreds gathered at the house, but by the time Mr McDonald's remains were being removed to Roselawn Cemetery in east Belfast over 1,000 had come on to the Whitewell Road to show their solidarity with the family.

Mr McDonald attended Glengormley High School, the same school as Gavin Brett, the 18-year-old Protestant killed by loyalist paramilitaries in late July, and many in the crowd wore the school's black blazer.

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The cortege visited the spot on the Whitewell Road where Mr McDonald was killed. His mother, Pauline, had to be supported by relatives and wept as she was shown the row upon row of flowers, football shirts and messages of sympathy which had built up into a makeshift shrine over three days.

Mr McDonald's father, Samuel, was one of the pallbearers. He comforted his other son, Stephen (14), and his daughter, Natalie (9).

Wreaths reflected the teenager's passion for Northern soccer club Linfield and the Whitewell Defenders flute band, in whose uniform he was buried.

Among those at the private service in the McDonald house was the DUP MP for North Belfast, Mr Nigel Dodds. Mr Frazer Agnew, an Independent Unionist MLA for the area, and Mr John White, the chairman of the Ulster Democratic Party, were present outside.

The McDonald family had earlier called for there to be no retaliation. Mr McDonald's grandmother, Gladys, said: "There's no way that we want any other family to be left the way we are today, Protestant or Catholic."

Ms McKeown's bail application was adjourned yesterday.