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Stuart McCausland with a picture of his mother who was savagely murdered in 1987
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Lorraine McCausland was beaten to death by UDA thugs in 1987
The only surviving son of murder victim Lorraine McCausland has blasted a police cover up of her killing which has lasted for nearly three decades.
Stuart McCausland has spoken for the first time about the pain of losing his mother, who was brutally beaten to death by UDA thugs.
And he’s called for political backing for the family’s campaign to get a thorough investigation into the killing.
The Historical Enquiries Team told Stuart and his family five years ago that none of Lorraine’s killers were informers when they murdered her in March 1987, but they had been recruited by Special Branch by April 1987.
He says it’s disgusting that her killing was used as leverage to get UDA members to work for the security services, and it has guaranteed the killers’ freedom since.
The HET also told the family in 2009 that arrests in connection with the murder were imminent in England, but nothing happened and they have had no news from the team since.
In desperation they have turned to pathologist Nat Cary, who worked on the Soham and Jennifer Cardy murders, who has vowed to help their probe.
After looking at material gathered by the family he believes Lorraine could have been the victim of rape or attempted rape, that there was no reason for the police to dismiss a sexual element to her killing, and the original pathologist did not have adequate experience or training in genital examinations.
“We had to do something to get new evidence and we did that ourselves,” says Stuart.
“We’ve asked for ten years for my mum’s body to be exhumed but nothing has been done.
“The family just wants justice for her.”
Lorraine, a hard-working mother of two who ran her own mobile shop, had been out for a drink in Tynedale Community Centre in the hours before her death.
On March 8 1987 the 22-year-old Glencairn woman’s semi-naked body was
found in a nearby stream with a trail of blood leading back to the centre. Forensic evidence showed she had been beaten inside the club, outside the door, and again where she was dumped.
Stuart has had to cope with the horror of learning the gruesome details of Lorraine’s death in order to get to the truth about her murder.
Her killers beat her with a breeze block on nearly every part of her body. The beating fractured Lorraine’s skull, ruptured her lung, liver and eyes, and one of her ears was almost severed.
In the cruellest twist her youngest son Craig, just two when his mum died, was also murdered by loyalists, gunned down by the UVF in north Belfast in 2005.
In 1987 the family were too stunned by the murder to suspect that it would be used to recruit the killers and witnesses as informers.
But since then it’s become clear that Lorraine’s murder is similar to that of Raymond McCord Jnr (pictured below), whose killers were informers protected by their police handlers.
His murder had been ordered by loyalist boss and police informer Mark Haddock, who was behind 12 killings according to a Police Ombudsman’s report, but he was never charged with any of them.
An inquest into Lorraine’s death was held in December 2007 but none of the crucial witnesses attended it, including a suspect who said he’d had consensual sex with Lorraine on the night she died, a claim that was unchallenged by RUC investigators.
Pathologist Nat Cary has also queried whether Lorraine’s level of intoxication would have allowed her to consent to sex.
After his mum’s murder Stuart and his brother were reared by Lorraine’s parents Charles and Renee.
The killing was never talked about although it was clear it had destroyed the couple’s lives, and it was only when Renee died that Lorraine’s father went to the Ombudsman about the original RUC investigation.
“It was only from then we started looking into it, and discovered they had used her death to recruit informers.
“Last Sunday everyone was going to their mum for Mother’s Day but where do I go?
“I grew up thinking I was different from everyone and I had something to prove. I was in a lot of stupid trouble, just trying to get noticed,” says the 32 year old.
The family have set up a Facebook page, Justice for Lorraine McCausland, on which they’ve asked for public support in nailing her killers, in the hope that some of those involved in covering it up will examine their conscience.
“We’re hoping it will play on someone’s mind. How can people live with themselves after something like that?”
They have learnt that both the two main suspects and some of the witnesses who were almost immediately recruited by Special Branch have walked away from charges ranging from drug dealing to murder in England despite a wealth of evidence.
Their only option now is to keep up the campaign for a new investigation and hope they can bring political pressure to bear on the PSNI to nail Lorraine’s murderers.
For Stuart, justice for his mum will not change what the murderers did to his life.
“I’ll always wonder ‘what if’. What if I’d grown up with my mother?
“I can’t try and put in to words how it’s made me feel. It has ruined my life,” he says.