Two jailed for sectarian fire deaths

(First Edition)

TWO teenagers were jailed for 15 years in Northern Ireland yesterday for a sectarian arson attack in which a mother and son died.

Kathleen Lundy, 40, and her 16-year-old son Colin met a 'terrible death' as they were burnt alive in their home in Glengormley, Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, the judge, Mr Justice Nicholson, said at Belfast Crown Court.

Richard McKay, 19, and Mark Whyte, 18, were found not guilty of murder but convicted of manslaughter. The judge said he had a 'slight doubt' as to whether McKay and Whyte intended to kill when Whyte poured petrol though the letter box of the Lundy home in November 1991.

But the attack was the worst case of manslaughter short of murder and had been motivated by sectarian hatred.

Catholics in that area had suffered a lot from sectarian strife and this attack was as 'frightening and cowardly as any of the killings'.

The court was told McKay had remarked to a friend: 'Two less Fenians' after hearing of the deaths, and the judge said their remorse was hollow.

McKay, of Sandyknowles Drive, Glengormley, and Whyte, of Carnreagh Bend, Rathcoole, were also given concurrent 15-year sentences for arson but were cleared of attempting to murder Mrs Lundy's 19-year-old son, Gerard, who survived the attack.

Mr Justice Nicholson said Gerard Lundy would be haunted for the rest of his life by the screams of his dying mother and younger brother.