Brian McDermott (Unsolved Murder)

Brian McDermott left his home in East Belfast and promised his mum he would be back for Sunday lunch. It was the last day of the summer holidays in 1973 and the 10 year old was headed to the playground at nearby Ormeau park. Brian was spotted there by several witnesses but he never returned home. Six days later his partial remains were found in a hessian sack floating on the River Lagan. At the time police said it was the most ghastly and fiendish murder that Northern Ireland had ever witnessed. Fifty years on the case remains unsolved and is dogged with conspiracy and rumour.

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Brian McDermott

This episode deals with a crime committed against a child. Please exercise self-care when choosing to listen.

It was Sunday September 2nd 1973 and the last official day of the school summer holidays. 10 year old Brian McDermott awoke and got dressed. He put on a white t-shirt with a Nettlefield Primary School badge on the chest, cream coloured jeans and black shoes. He then ate a breakfast of buttered toast. He spent the rest of the morning inside the modest family home on Well Street, off Lower Woodstock Road in east Belfast. Just before 1pm Brian began getting ready to go out. His 42 year old  mother Joan asked him where he was headed. He replied he was going to play at Ormeau park, just a few minutes walk from the house. Joan told Brian that his Sunday dinner was nearly ready and that he should be back by 2.30pm. The doting mother then helped Brian brush his hair and fetched his green parka jacket. She watched through the living room window as her son left via the front door, crossed the street and walked in the direction of the large municipal park.

Over the next ninety minutes there were a couple of sightings of Brian at the park. A school friend out taking his dog “Spot” for a walk, passed Brian, and the pair greeted each other. According to the school friend, Brian seemed happy and nothing looked amiss. An hour later things had changed. Another boy spotted Brian in the playground, sitting alone on the swings and looking forlorn. The boy approached Brian and asked if he wanted to come over to a swing next to him, so they could play together. Brian replied that he did not want to play and promptly left the playground through a hole in a wire fence. Brian then headed across a patch of  grass towards an area populated with trees and shrubs.

Not long after this a man walking his dog in the park noticed a large group of male youths gathered around an open fire. Next to the group on the ground lay a blue chopper bicycle. Chopper bikes have a slightly smaller wheel at the front and distinctive handlebars. The group of youths were being loud and rowdy. The dogwalker could hear the boys were swearing a lot. The man carried on walking and minutes later a lad on a blue chopper passed him and abruptly stopped and got off the bike. The youth ran to a nearby bin and was violently sick. A woman who happened to be walking by at that time ran over to assist the boy but he refused help. He jumped back on the bike and peddled quickly away.

Meanwhile back at the McDermott's house 2.30pm arrived with no sign of Brian. As the family dinner sat on the table getting cold, both Joan and Brian's father Edward began to grow concerned. Brian’s oldest brother, 19 year old Eddie, was currently at home on leave from the army so he went out to try and locate his younger sibling. As the hours ticked by with no sign of Brian, worry turned to panic and the distraught parents contacted the police. That night Joan stayed up all night in the living room as other family members and police officers roamed the streets looking for any sign of the missing boy. Joan left the front door open all night, and when pacing around the house became unbearable, she would go out onto the road and call desperately for him to come home. Morning came with no news. 

Over the next few days the nearby area of Sydenham in east Belfast was searched, as well as places further afield such as Tollymore Forest park, which lies an hours drive south of Belfast, and the small village of Drumbo which is 20 minutes outside the city limits. A camp used by the Boys Brigade at Helens Bay on the east coast of Northern Ireland was also visited by police. Boys Brigade is a christian youth organisation similar to the Scouts. Brian attended a local Boys Brigade group near to his home. Nothing was found at any of these locations.

It would be six days after Brian went missing that Joan and Edward would discover the ghastly truth of what had befallen their youngest son. 

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Brian was the fifth and youngest child of Edward and Joan McDermott. Edward was from Northern Ireland and Joan was originally from Scotland. Brian had two brothers, Edward (Eddie) and William (Billy) and two sisters. Brian was born in Rugby, in the county of Warwickshire, England, when his father was stationed there with the RAF. Soon afterwards the family moved to Scotland, before settling in Northern Ireland, specifically the protestant area of east Belfast  when Brian was 5. Edward senior, now having left the services, got a job as a lorry driver. At the time Brian disappeared he was just a couple of days away from starting a new school, Euston Street Secondary. Brian was small for his age and appeared younger than his 10 years. He stood at 4 ft 3, 130 cm, and had a very slight build. Brian had a fair complexion with freckles and red or ginger hair. Brian had a quiet demeanour and some sources refer to him as being timid in nature. His mother, Joan, said he would always do what he was told eventually and described him as cheeky.

On Saturday September 8th 1973, 6 days after Brian was last seen, the McDermotts received the worst news imaginable. At this time the political situation in Northern Ireland was tense to say the least. The period known as “The Troubles'' began in the late 1960’s and continued until the signing of the Good Friday agreement in 1998. There isn't time to go into a detailed history of the conflict but put simply it was a sectarian conflict between  protestant unionists and catholic republicans. Violence often spilled on to the streets and paramilitary organisations on both sides were active in the region. For decades armed British army patrols were a regular sight on the streets of Belfast and the threat of terrorist attacks were very real for both catholic and protestant communities. For this reason members of the public were made aware to look out for suspicious packages or unattended bags. You could never be too careful. 

On Saturday September 8th a member of the public contacted the security services to say they had seen an object floating in the River Lagan near Annadale Embankment. The river runs alongside the western border of Ormeau park, and this specific location is about a ten minute walk from the park’s southern boundary. A British army squad was asked to go and check out the suspicious item. 

Soldiers arrived at the scene and could see the item was a hessian sack, lying in the mud near the bank of the river. The water level was currently low and had exposed the object. One of the soldiers was able to reach down from the edge of the river bank and grab the bag. By its weight he could feel there was something inside so he placed the sack on the ground and opened it. He sprang back in horror and immediately motioned for his commanding officer to come over. The bag contained the charred remains of a human being.  It was a mutilated torso. Both legs and one arm were missing.

The body was badly burnt but fingerprints were able to be taken from a solitary finger tip that remained undamaged by the flames. This was then compared to prints taken from school work books belonging to Brian McDermott. They were a match. Officers called at the family’s terraced house on Well Street to inform Brian’s parents of the grim news. Brian's eldest brother Eddie later said, in a 2003 BBC TV Crimewatch feature about the case, that he was in his bedroom when the officers called. He was suddenly aware of a commotion downstairs. He went into the living room to see his mother sobbing and being comforted by a female police officer. His father sat there looking horrified.

In those days the police service in Northern Ireland was the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) The RUC was superseded by the Police service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in 2001 as part of the peace process. Within days of the gruesome discovery senior RUC officers were referring to the murder of Brian McDermott as the most ghastly and fiendish the province had ever witnessed.

An appeal was put out for anyone in the vicinity of Ormeau park on the afternoon of Saturday 2nd September to come forward. The public was specially asked if they remembered seeing anyone in the area carrying a sack or if they had smelled burning over the last week or so. Parents of children in East Belfast were petrified that there was a psychopathic child killer on the loose. They pleaded with security forces to increase their presence in the area to help allay their fears. 

A hundred members of the security forces searched miles along the banks of the River Lagan in either direction looking for the rest of Brian’s remains. A four mile stretch of the river was drained but nothing of note was uncovered. Reports came in of a bonfire on Balfour Avenue on the night Brian went missing. This is a 10 minute walk from Ormeau park. The remaining ashes were sifted through but no evidence was uncovered. No further remains were ever found. 

An autopsy was carried out on the remains but police could not determine the cause of death. One thing that was deduced was that the body had been burnt over an open wood fire.

Police were at a loss as to the motive for such a violent, and calculated murder of a person so young. From very early in the investigation it was reported in newspapers that Assistant Chief Constable William McHarg said police did not believe that the murder was sectarian in nature and urged the community that reprisals would be pointless. The police continued with this line publicly but behind the scenes it was later shown that it was an angle they investigated.

Investigators did not believe that Brian's death was the result of a school boy fight gone too far. The violence exhibited was way too extreme. One rumour that police would neither confirm or deny was whether the murder was connected to witchcraft. Due to the mutilation of the body, and the fact it had been burned over an open fire this was a theory that took hold within days of the remains being found. There was fear that some teenagers in the city had begun to dabble in satanism. It is a topic of speculation that has continued to raise itself over the ensuing decades.

Even in a place which had seen its fair share of violence over the previous four years, the murder of a child in this manner rocked the entire province. The outlawed Ulster Defense Association, a loyalist paramilitary group, offered a £500 reward for information leading to the capture of the killer or killers. The group, which boasted 53,000 members across Northern Ireland, took the rare step of announcing that they would assist the authorities in the investigation in any way they could. They cancelled planned protests and called on Republican paramilitaries to do what they could to bring the guilty party to justice. In solidarity Catholic newspapers universally condemned the murder. 

The pleas for people to come forward with information did lead to the sightings of Brian in Ormeau park which I mentioned at the beginning of the episode. It also produced the report of the gang of youths hanging around an open fire at the park. Police were unable to identify any of the boys present. 

The police received a tip from a woman who said on Thursday September 6th she had seen a man take a sack from a grey car and throw it into the River Lagan. This was near the location where the remains were later found. On the Reasoned Crime Chronicle website they make mention of a green Morris Minor that was also said to have been seen near the river on the night Brian disappeared. In response to this information being made public, authorities received 500 calls. As a result a house to house search was conducted on Ravenhill Road which runs along the east side of Ormeau park. It appears no significant leads came from this.

Brian’s  funeral took place on September 13th 1973. The sombre procession silently snaked its way through the streets of East Belfast to Mountpottinger Presbyterian church. Thousands lined the route and it remains one of the largest events of its kind in Northern Ireland history. The service was attended by protestant and catholic clergy. Dr John W Oor who led the service called upon the killers to give themselves up. He said they could expect mercy but also justice. Brian was laid to rest at Roselawn cemetery.

By the late 1970s, the case had gone cold and the investigation was not being actively worked. This changed in the early part of 1982.

Kincora Boys Home was established in 1958 by the Stormont department of Health and Social Services. Its task was to provide accommodation and care for boys aged 15-18 who had been removed from an abusive home life. The sad truth is that Kincora Boys Home was anything but a haven for the vulnerable children it purported to serve. 

From the early 1960’s until its closure in 1980 many boys at the Home were sexually abused by some members of staff. The horrors of what was going on at the Boys Home came to the public's attention when the Irish Independent exposed the abuse in January 1980. The following year three members of staff were jailed for between 4 and 6 years for the abuse that went on at Kincora.They were Raymond Semple, Joseph Mains and William McGrath. 

William McGrath was well known in the loyalist community and was a founder of “Ireland's Heritage Loyal Orange Lodge”, one of Belfast's 300 Orange order lodges. McGrath also founded the extremist Ulster loyalist movement “Tara”.

Following the convictions of McGrath and the two other members of staff at Kincora the press began to ask questions about how the abuse had gone undetected for two decades.Concerns over William McGrath were first aired in 1971. Newspapers reports in 1982 said that prominent unionist leaders knew about the rumours concerning Mcgrath’s sexual proclivities but had not reported him to the authorities.  

A private Inquiry was established in January 1982 by Northern Ireland secretary James Prior to review the investigation into Kincora, but it collapsed after a matter of days. Three members resigned over what they said was a poor investigation by the RUC. They believed that the criminal investigation should continue  as further crimes linked to Kincora house may yet be uncovered.

The public mood was restless and there was talk of a possible cover up. Some feared the abuse may have been more widespread than the three convicted perpetrators. There were rumours of an organised paedophile ring operating in east Belfast involving high ranking civil servants, senior members of the army and prominent loyalists.  

Chief Superintendent George Caskey, who led the 1980 investigation into McGrath, Semple and Mains, was tasked  to head up an additional RUC investigation into any further crimes that may have been committed at the Kincora Boys Home and also to examine claims of a cover up. 

It  was reported in papers, such as the Liverpool Echo in March 1982, that the murder of Brian McDermott had been reopened in connection with the new investigation into Kincora Boys Home. Brian had lived about a 10 minute drive from Kincora Home for Boys. Some contemporary articles say this development followed detectives turning up new evidence that could link the case with a paedophile ring operating at Kincora house. At the time The RUC themselves said there was no direct link between the Brian McDermott case and what went on at Kincora house. 

In 2013, minutes from a meeting between three senior members of the British government: Secretary of State James Prior, Lord Hailsham and Sir Michael Havers, proved that George Caskey was asked to include in the Kincora investigation the murder of Brain McDermott, as well as the disappearances of two other boys: Jonathan Aven, 14, and David Lekey, 12. Both boys disappeared just five days apart in September 1969. The two boys lived a mile apart and David lived on a street off Newtownards Road, the road on which Kincora Boys Home stood. I will address the cases of these two boys towards the end of the episode.

The minutes from the meeting stated that investigators were investigating a man who had faced charges of sexual assault in 1972 but had been falsely acquited based on perjured evidence. It was believed this person had information about the murder of Brian McDermott. The man had been involved in Unionist politics. His surname is mentioned in the minutes of the meeting and it didn't take much detective work to find his full name. I believe this individual is now deceased but I have decided not to include the name simply because I can't find any mainstream media sources that do so. According to the minutes of the meeting the police file on the man was said to have been destroyed in a bomb explosion in 1977 during an  RUC investigation into allegations that a Department of Health and social services file on Kincora had been quote “mutilated”. I presume this means altered in some way. As far as I can tell the man was never arrested or charged in connection with Brian's murder.

Former Chief Superintendent George Caskey passed away in 2022 but a few years before his death he was interviewed for television by journalist Chris Moore. An article published in Sunday World in April 2023 written by Moore retells some of the details from the interview. Caskey recalls that in early 1982 the police heard rumours concerning a prominent loyalist leader John McKeague and his possible involvement with the murder of Brain McDermott. (Just to be clear this is not the man referred to in the minutes of the government meeting)

McKeague was a renowned loyalist and vehement anti-catholic. He moved to east Belfast in the late 60’s from County Antrim and was first aligned with the Reverend Ian Paisley’s Free Presbyterian church. McKeague soon split from this organisation and the two men became political enemies. He was involved in numerous paramilitary groups during the late 1960s and 1970s and established the infamous Red Hand Commando in 1972. During the 1970’s McKeague spent a three year stint in prison for armed robbery which was linked to his paramilitary activity.

McKeague was a politically hate-filled and violent man but there were other even darker rumours surrounding him. When still living in County Antrim McKeague had been questioned over the sexual assault of two boys. His connections with powerful friends meant the charges did not stick. Throughout the 1970’s he developed a reputation as a person that displayed sexual violence to young men and boys. There is a train of thought that McKeague was blackmailed by security forces (the RUC and later the British army) into becoming an informer. His paedophilia was used as leverage against him. This is not proven and it is a source of much debate.

In 1982 McKeague was spoken to concerning his possible involvement in the abuse at Kincora house. McKeague knew William McGrath, the disgraced house master of Kincora Boys Home, through their mutual involvement in various loyalist groups. In the aforementioned interview with journalist Chris Moore, George Caskey says that in 1982 proceedings were underway for an Mckeague to be arrested and questioned. Then, just a couple of days before the police planned on interviewing McKeague, he was assassinated by the Republican paramilitary group, the Irish National Liberation Army in the hardware shop he owned on Albertbridge Road.

In his 2004 book “Trigger Men” author Matt Dillon says information in police and British Intelligence files points toward McKeague being responsible for Brian’s murder. Dillon also shares in the book that in order to avoid going back to prison McKeague was planning on sharing with police information concerning those involved in a paedophile ring. Two Northern Irish journalists, Jack Holland and Henry McDonald (both now deceased) put forward that the murder of McKeague may have been sanctioned by British Intelligence. The theory being that McKeague may have been about to expose other agents or informants who were also in their service by means of blackmail, due to their paedophilia. Again this cannot be proved either way.

This is pretty heavy stuff which demands a whole podcast series in and of itself. 

In terms of McKeague’s possible involvement in the murder of Brian, there is no concrete evidence to point to and in more recent write ups about the case he is rarely mentioned. Information had been put forward that sheds doubt on McKeague’s involvement in Brian’s murder. Author Richard Mulvenna’s research for his 2016 book “Tartan Gangs and paramilitaries: The Loyalist Backlash” suggests that McKeague was in prison when Brian was killed. 

Although questioned about the abuse at Kincora, he was never convicted or even charged with crimes that took place there. I have read some sources that rumour that McKeague was interested in satanism, which has I said has always been vaguely associated with Brian's murder. From my research it is also clear that the man I did not name, mentioned in the minutes of the government meeting in 1982  was well known by McKeague. Though of course this proves nothing and is another example of the many rabbit holes one can end up going down in this tragic story.

Back in 1982 Chief Superintendent George Caskey concluded his investigation in Kincora, stating that no there was no evidence of a cover up or involvement of politicians, military or paramilitary members in the abuse. Around 250 boys had lived at the home during the period the abuse had happened and the investigation spoke to 104 of them. 46 had experienced abuse at the home but none of them mentioned being abused by an organised paedophile ring. The crimes were committed by the three men convicted and already behind bars. 

There was also no evidence that linked Kincora to other crimes such as the murder of Brian McDermott or any other murders or missing persons cases. Sir George Terry, the former chief of Sussex police, reviewed the findings and came to the same conclusion. Over the years questions remained but the Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry addressed the matter in 2017. The Inquiry was shown a document written by a former British army officer in which an alleged link was put forward between Kincora and the murder of Brian Mcdermott. However they also examined another document from 2004 in which the same army officer claimed there was no link. The inquiry concluded that the abuse at Kincora house did not involve anyone other than the three members of staff , McGrath, Semple and Mains, who were convicted. There was no evidence of an organised paedophile ring. 

Whether or not there was an organised paedophile ring based at Kincora the children and young people who had survived the abuse and been severely let down by the care system.

The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland stated in 2022  that there had been numerous failings connected with Kincora and the abuse that went on there. When children spoke up their allegations were often not passed on to the police. If they ever did reach the ears of officers they were not investigated properly, if at all. 

The Kincora scandal continues to attract a lot of conspiracy theories and speculation  but if we leave that to one side there have also been other significant developments in Brian’s case over the last few decades.

On the twentieth anniversary of Brian’s murder in 1993 the Irish newspaper “Sunday Life” received an anonymous letter that claimed to provide details about the killer. The writer said that the man responsible for the murder had lived near Ormeau park at the time but had since moved away. They provided a current address for the man and included a crudely drawn suspect sketch. It's a rather bizarre portrait displaying a man with thick dark hair and eyebrows, stubble, with rosy cheeks and large ears. The man appears quite stocky with a large neck. 

This news led to renewed interest in the case and the police received several phone calls. A recent Belfast Telegraph article from September 2nd 2023 said in 1993 some people even contacted police to say they believed they may have witnessed Brian being abducted. One person even said they may have smelled Brain’s body being burned. The RUC were said to have looked into all these leads but as far as I can make out nothing came of them.

Another decade passed and, to coincide with thirty years since the murder, police in Northern Ireland launched a fresh appeal for information. On Wednesday October 22nd 2003 the unsolved murder of Brian McDermott was featured on the BBC Crimewatch program. A reenactment was staged of the last known movements of Brian and some additional information was made public. 

On the program DCI George Hamilton specifically mentioned the group of youths that were seen gathered around a fire in Ormeau park on the afternoon Brian went missing. He stated that one of the boys was overheard by a passerby saying the words “Wee Jock”. This could mean they were referring to Brian. Jock is a slang term for a Scot and Brian still maintained a slight Scottish lilt to his accent. Brian was also small in stature. DCI Hamilton did stress that the utterance of this phrase may have nothing to do with Brian and the boys may well know nothing of what happened to him. Still they asked them to come forward. As far as I can see they never did.

There were other people in the park that day who had never come forward. This included parents out with their children and people playing tennis. They could hold vital information about Brian's movements in the park that day. In the crimewatch appeal there was no mention of a sexual motive or that the murder could be linked to paedophilia. However, police made it known in other media sources at the time that they had not ruled out a witchcraft or paedophile connection to Brian's murder. 

It wasn't long before investigators announced that they believed that they were close to making an arrest. This duly followed when a man was arrested in connection with Brian’s murder in March of  2004. After several days the man was released without charge.  At the time the name of this man was not released but four years later it was made public in the most dramatic way. 

In January 2008 prosecuting lawyer Lesley Ashton told a magistrates court in Worcester, England, that her client’s ex-husband had confessed to her that he was responsible for the murder of Brain McDermott. Ashtons’s client was a woman named Sarah and was the ex-wife of Brian McDermott’s brother William. William, or Billy as he was known, was 16 at the time Brian was murdered. 

This bombshell allegation occurred during court proceedings against Billy for sending threatening text messages to his ex-wife Sarah. He was given four years in prison for this offence. Billy already  had numerous other convictions in the past for violent offences. 

Billy gave a full response to the allegation (which he denies) some years later. I will come to this in a moment. 

The alleged confession was said to have occurred in 2003 when the police reopened the case. Sarah claimed Billy had become stressed after the police announced the re-investigation and told her he had murdered his younger brother. On hearing this news Sarah went straight to the police. Billy McDermott was the man arrested in connection with the crime in 2004. This was confirmed by Brian's eldest brother Eddie in an interview with Sunday Life (summarised in the Belfast Telegraph on January 27th 2008). Billy himself also later confirmed this fact. 

It also came to light that Billy was spoken to by police for the first time back in 1976. Billy came to the attention of the police at this time following several incidents involving him physically assaulting his mother Joan. While at the police station he was asked about the murder of his brother. Eddie states in the Belfast Telegraph article from January 27th 2008 that he believes it was his mother who first passed on suspicions about Billy concerning Brian’s murder to the police. In 1976 Billy was released without charge. 

Following Billy's ex-wife Sarah coming forward in 2003 about his alleged confession, Billy was brought over to Belfast from his home in England for questioning. He was released without charge. The police did provide a file to the director of public prosecutions but the matter was not taken further and a prosecution was not sought.

Following the allegation made in court in 2008 the PSNI did look into the case again but they did not interview Billy and took no further action. 

In 2013 Billy McDermott gave an interview to the BBC to put forward his version of events. He outright denied any involvement in the murder but understood that he was viewed as the chief suspect by many. The family had been torn apart by the murder but the worst thing for Billy was knowing that his own mother believed him guilty. Joan had passed away in 2004. 

The horror of living with the murder had been a huge strain on the family but for Billy he also had to live with the stigma that many people believed him responsible. He openly admitted that he had been spoken to twice by police in 1976 and 2004 but said he had been treated badly. He said the police claimed they had evidence against him and they wanted him to admit to something that he did not do. He said that in 1976, age 19, he had confessed to the murder but said it was unfounded and he was pressured into it by detectives. Billy told the BBC that police suggested to him the motive for the murder was based around a falling out with Brian. Billy says Brian had hit him on the back with a stick in the days before the murder and police claimed this was motivation for revenge. 

In 2013 Billy had no contact with other members of the family and he had been forced to legally change his name to escape the glare of his accusers. This is the reason I feel comfortable sharing his original name as his new identity is unknown. In 2013 Billy pleaded with the real killer to come forward, even if it was anonymously, as he was resigned to the fact that until that happened accusations and rumour would continue to haunt him. 

Earlier in the episode I briefly mentioned two boys, David Leckey and Jonathan Aven, who went missing in 1969 and whose cases Chief Superintendent George Caskey was asked to look into in connection with the Kincora investigation. Caskey unearthed no evidence to connect them to Kincora but it remains unknown if they are linked in any way to the murder of Brian McDermott. 

Little information exists for either case and according to an article in the Belfast Daily from 2012 the original police file on David Leckey was lost years ago. A matter of months after David Leckey and Jonathan Aven disappeared, two 16 year old boys, John David Glennon from West Belfast and Ronald Kirk last seen in Carrickfergus (a half hour drive north of Belfast), vanished   on the same day in January 1970. I can find only a few scant references to these boys online, one such source is the website Reasoned Crime Chronicle. 

The Belfast Daily Article from 2012 interviews a man named Darren Brown who moved into David Leckey's old house in 1987 and was trying to find information about David's disappearance. He launched a campaign to finally get answers and was appealing for people who attended David’s junior school, Oakleigh School on Ravenhill Road, to come forward. Darren also said cold case detectives from PSNI were currently reviewing David's case and some of the other boys that went missing during that period.

 As well as the individuals I have mentioned, two other boys, John Rodgers, 11, and Thomas Spence, 13, went missing in 1974 never to be seen or heard from again. The friends were last seen on their way to school on the Falls Road on the morning of November 26th 1974. Another boy, J Lesithen, is also said to have gone missing in 1969. Literally no additional details can be found about him.

Since 2012 I can find precious little new information on any of these cases and for the most part they appear to have been forgotten. It is not known if they bear any connection to Brian’s case.

Brian’s murder destroyed the McDermott family. Both Brian’s parents turned to drink to cope with the trauma of losing their youngest son in such a barbaric way. Both passed away without seeing any justice for Brian. The PSNI stated that Brian's case had not been closed but they did not know when it would be next reviewed by the Legacy investigation branch. New information is encouraged to be brought forward and will be looked into accordingly. 

In an article published in the Belfast Telegraph on September 2nd 2023, the fiftieth anniversary of Brian's murder, it is clear that Eddie Mcdermott will never give up in the pursuit for the killer of his youngest brother to be brought to justice. He urged them to come forward to unburden themselves. He passionately believes one day justice will be done.

If you have any information about the unsolved  murder of Brian McDermott you can call crime stoppers anonymously. In their words,  No police. No courts. No witness statements. In short, no comeback. The number is  0800 555 111.

Sources

https://tinyurl.com/b738vy3x