Gerard Conway: Inquest hears relatives of missing Tyrone man believe he was killed

An inquest has heard relatives of a Co Tyrone man who went missing 18 years ago believe he was killed.

Gerard Conway, from Cookstown, Co Tyrone, vanished without a trace aged 32 in January 2007 and was reported missing the following month.

An inquest into his death opened in Omagh on Monday despite the absence of a body.

In the aftermath of his disappearance there were unconfirmed sightings in the Magherafelt, Toome and Ballymena areas.

Members of Mr Conway’s family, including his mother Mary, were in court on Monday for the first day of evidence.

After the father-of-one went missing a £100,000 reward was offered by his family.

In 2017 police carried out a search of land in the Moortown area of Co Tyrone with the force later saying “notnhing untoward” was found.

At the time police deployed search dogs and a “ground-penetrating radar device”.

During Monday’s hearing, the coroner heard evidence from police officers involved in various searches connected to Mr Conway’s disappearance.

Transcripts of a police interview given by Mr Conway’s uncle, Cathal Quinn, were also read into the court record.

During the interview, Mr Quinn said he believed his nephew had been killed.

He told police at the time of the interview that if his nephew was going to take his own life “his body would have been found”.

“He had too many people around the town that didn’t like him and then he went into a high,” he said.

“If he went into a high, he went after people, the way he goes into highs and lows, he’s bi-polar.”

Mr Quinn later suggested his nephew “probably went after the wrong person”.

Coroner Joe McCrisken later heard a dictaphone was brought to a meeting involving Mr Quinn and other members of his family with a person who claimed to have knowledge of the murder.

Mr Quinn told police this man provided the name of a person he claimed killed Mr Conway.

During the hearing, Mr McCrisken placed reporting restrictions on naming the individual, who is referred to as Person A.

“He just started talking about (Person A), stuff like that, had killed Gerard in a bar in Cullybackey,” Mr Quinn told police.

“He says, ‘I don’t like this boy, Person A’, he says’, ‘it’s in the grapevine’. I says ‘what do you mean, the grapevine’?

“‘The criminal grapevine’, he says.”

Mr Quinn later told police that “apparently” Mr Conway owed £18,000.

Mr Quinn said Mr Conway believed the Provisional IRA “were after him”.

“He thought people were after him, he thought the Provos were after him,” he said.

Mr Quinn suggested that his nephew “ran after” a named individual, however, during the hearing the coroner also placed restrictions on naming that person.

Mr Quinn added that “they weren’t looking for him, this was in his head”.

He later told police he was given the name of another man who it was alleged had killed his nephew, adding that he had got a knife and gone to the person’s house but he wasn’t in.