Mother celebrates NY Cop's Conviction of Killing Son Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source: IRSP Precedence: bulk Victory Salute: Relatives of Hessie Phelan celebrate outside New York Court From Seamus McKinney in Derry and Patrick Markey in New York A MOTHER won her three-year battle for justice yesterday when a New York policeman was convicted of killing her son. Anna Phelan spoke of her relief yesterday after learning that Richard Molloy was found guilty of second degree manslaughter. Patrick Heslin (Hessy) Phelan, a former INLA prisoner, was shot dead on January 21 1996 in an apartment in New York's Bronx district. Policeman Richard Molloy claimed that Hessy had grabed his personal issue revolver during a struggle and shot himself through the eye. Prosecutors claimed Molloy had a history of drunken gunplay, including a claim that he shot out a light in a bar and shot a rat in another bar. The Derry man's mother Anna refused to accept her son committed suicide and embarked on a three-and-a-half year campaign to find the truth. Mr Phelan spent almost ten years in prison in Norhtern Ireland. On his release he moved to the US to work as a painter. On the night of his death, Hessy went to the Oak Bar which was popular with Irish immigrants. A friend of Hessy's from Pettigo in Co Donegal who later married Molloy - Maggie McGrath - asked Molloy to take Hessy to her apartment to recover because he was drunk. In the flat, Molloy killed Hessy. Disputing Molloy's version of her son's death, Mrs Phelan travelled from her Lone Moore Road home to New York and successfully petitioned authorities to reinvestigate the incident. With the help of SDLP leader John Hume, she managed to persuade a Bronx medical officer to re-examine the case and his findings led to a new investigation. The medical official reported that the fatal wounds on Mr Phelan's body could not have been self-inflicted. Added to this was the fact that the only other person in the apartment - although in a separate room - heard Mr Phelan goading Molloy to shoot him. Although initially charged with second degree murder, he was convicted yesterday with second degree manslaughter. Molloy will be sentenced on May 12 when the judge will outline his reasons for conviction. After a tense morning in court yesterday, Molloy was taken into custody with Phelan family supporters cheering outside the building, and the officer's wife weeping on the benches inside. "Hessy has got justice, my mother has got justice. This time the system worked," Mr Phelan's sister Martina Boback said in a brief press conference. News of the conviction was greeted with unrestrained joy at Mrs Phelan's home. Unable to travel to the US through illness, a relative telephoned through the verdict shortly before 4pm. Speaking immediately afterwards, Mrs Phelan said her faith was restored in US justice. "I feel sad for Mrs Molloy who must be suffering in her own way and I hope she has people around her. "But she still has her son to talk to. I only have a gravestone," she said. She admitted the long campaign for justice had been difficult but said it had brought her entire family closer together. She described the campaign as "a battle well fought" and said now the "war is won". ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-05.12.99-00:19:36-28498