Two fathers, one Catholic, one Protestant, are devastated following the killing of Bernadette Martin (18). Her father, Mr Laurence Martin, said yesterday he wanted no retaliation for the murder of his "special child".
Mr John Green, father of her boyfriend, Mr Gordon Green (19), said his family was "devastated" at the "evil act" which happened in his Aghalee home.
"It's terrible. I can only hope and pray that no other family has to go through this. We will never get over it," he said yesterday. "My children will not go up the stairs. My son will not stay at home, he is staying with his uncle. He is in pieces. Nothing like this has ever happened in Aghalee before." He was full of praise for Bernadette and his son. "They were just dying about each other. We just thought of her as one of our own. My daughter Wendy loved her to bits. They were like sisters."
Mr Green said his wife drove into Lurgan on Monday night to the Pinebank estate where Bernadette lived to collect her and Gordon.
"God, if we hadn't gone to collect her, she might be alive." Bernadette and Gordon were upstairs when Wendy returned home from a night out. The three young people chatted until the early hours of the morning when one by one, they drifted off to sleep. Mr Green said the light was off in the room where they lay sleeping. "I was asleep in the next bedroom . . . When I realised what was happening I could hardly believe it. They must have been waiting. It was done out of pure hatred," he said. "I have no doubt in my own mind that it was sectarian.
"It was an evil act. It's just evil. I can't think of any other words to put it. Whoever did it must be evil," he said. "If you knew the people round here. My friends are all mixed. The local pub in Aghalee closed as a mark of respect last night. There have been letters and cards from people all over this morning." Mr Green had high praise for Bernadette's family. "They are very nice people, they have been good to us. We went up to the hospital yesterday and they were very kind. They have helped us through this." Mr Martin said he had no idea why his daughter had been killed but he was certain of one thing, he had lost one of his children.
"Really at this present time, all I know is my daughter is dead," he said. "Whoever done that, I have no feelings for them. I can forgive them, but God might never forgive them. But if it was [sectarian], we do not want any repercussions or people claiming reprisals . . . and if her death means it is the last death in this country, then maybe it is worth something and we can live in peace."
He spoke of how they learned about the shooting. "The first call we got was at four o'clock from her boyfriend to say she was shot in the shoulder so it didn't seem serious. But then the police came and told me she had been shot in the head.
"All they can tell me is they heard bangs. I think there was him and his sister and my daughter in the room and seemingly someone busted in, ran up the stairs and just shot her."
For 12 hours the family kept vigil at their daughter's bedside in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, but she died on Tuesday afternoon. "This must be how being in shock feels. We are numb. We stayed with Bernadette until she died . . . they just kept her alive on the ventilator, then she just died."
Fighting back the tears, he said: "It's hard. You feel for people who have lost somebody like that and in circumstances like that, but you never expect it to happen to yourself."
He spoke of the problems of being a father, of seeing children grow up and beginning to live their own lives and of the particular difficulties in a society filled with the fear of violence. "You worry all the time. You never stop worrying. And the more you have, the more you worry - but she was special. She was special."