NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      DUBLIN (CWNews.com) - In Ireland, a 27-year-old Protestant has been jailed for life for the sectarian murder of a 16-year-old Catholic schoolboy. The badly decomposed and burnt body of James Morgan was found in a pit near his home in County Down in July 1997.

      At Belfast Crown Court today, James' parents wept openly as Norman Coopey admitted being one of two men who beat the schoolboy to death with a hammer after picking him up as he was hitchhiking home. James's body was doused in gasoline and set afire before being dumped in a water-filled pit. Later an unsuspecting workman dumped animal carcasses in the pit and it was a further two days before the schoolboy's partly decomposed body was found.

      A defense lawyer said Coopey, a member of the Loyalist Volunteer Force, now bitterly regretted his involvement in the attack. He said Coopey was "very much in fear of the person with him." Earlier, a prosecution lawyer said Coopey claimed his partner attacked the schoolboy with a claw hammer he carried in his car after they had learned his name and religion.

      Coopey "finished Mr. Morgan off with further blows" to the back of his head in case he might identify his attackers. Lord Justice McCollum told Coopey he'd pleaded guilty to the heinous murder of a 16-year-old schoolboy who was a completely innocent victim of clearly what was a sectarian attack. Afterward the schoolboy's parents said they were glad it was now all over.