Newry woman whose father was shot by the IRA has Troubles victims' payment claim turned down

A Newry woman who witnessed her father being shot by the IRA, is to apply for a judicial review of the decision not to award her a victims' related payment.

That's because the Victims' Payment Board didn't deem the attack to have been Troubles related.

While it says it doesn't comment on individual cases, the Board last month ruled that the shooting was instead a 'punishment style' attack.

Jeanitta McCabe was just 10-years-old when her father was shot by masked gunmen at their home in Newry.

Peter McCabe was treated for a gunshot wound and told he had 24 hours to leave the country.

“Basically IRA, masked and armed men, came to our home, there were seven children and my mother and father in the house at the time,” Jeanitta told UTV.

“My father was taken to the kitchen of the house and he was shot at. The first shot hit my father in the leg, the second shot hit a steel typewriter my father had lifted off the table to protect himself and deflected into the radiator.”

Jeanitta applied to the Troubles Permanent Disabilities Payment scheme - set up to provide financial support for those living with physical or psychological injuries sustained in Troubles-related incidents.

But the Victims Payment Board ruled that the attack on her father didn't count as a “Troubles-related incident” - i.e. related to political or sectarian hostility - but concluded it was instead a punishment style attack and her application was rejected. But not just Jeanitta's application - but her father's too.

“I think it places a very unfair burden on victims to come to a panel or lodge an appeal like this and show that an incident like this was not a result of anti-social behaviour but was to do with something else,” Kevin Winters from KRW Law said.

So it’s a difficult burden placed on victims and this case will help address that.”

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