HET finds former soldier lied about 1975 Derry death

The Historical Enquiries Team has found that a former soldier lied about the fatal shooting of a woman in Derry in 1975.
The HET report concludes a claim that 22-year-old Bernadette Friel sustained the single wound during a game of “Russian Roulette” was fabricated.
The report says Thomas Ramsay deliberately shot her and then told investigators a series of lies about what happened. Ms Friel, who had a four-year-old son, died from a single wound to the head, two days after she was shot in the bedroom of Ramsay’s home in the Carnhill area of Derry.
Ramsay had been charged with murder, but the charge was reduced to manslaughter, after the Director of Public Prosecutions accepted his version of events.
He subsequently spent eight months in jail.