Lillian: 'We need answers'

Sitting in the car on the way home, Lillian had no idea that minutes later her grandson would enter the Faughan River and drown.

"I was on my way home when the phone went and it cut off and I saw it was a private number. Kyle was the only one who would have done that. So I rang him back and I said 'Kyle were you looking me?' and he said 'Yes Granny, sorry I forgot you weren't in the day, I'll ring Granda. Willie told me later that he said to him 'Granda is it alright if I stay out til 7.15pm?'"

Still reeling with the pain that only a grandmother can feel after the loss of a grandchild, Lillian Bones has admitted that she is desperate to know what happened in the minutes before 15-year-old Kyle entered the Faughan.

Touched

Despite their grief, she says her family has been deeply touched by the way so many young people have chosen to remember Kyle, but admits it is going to be a long time before the family recovers - if at all.

"I just cannot believe the response of them. They were heartbroken too and it was awful to see and I will never ever forget going into my daughter Fiona's front room and seeing Kyle in his coffin and about 30 youngsters crying in that living room. They were absolutely and utterly distraught and I couldn't get over how many of them there were and that they were from all different estates, and they all just mingled together and were supporting each other and in a whole lot of ways they were supporting us as well.

"There was one young boy yesterday (Sunday] who ran across the road and put his arms around me and hugged me. It has really, really upset them too. I think it's shock at what actually happened.

"It would still have been hard for us if Kyle had have been in a car or plane and it was an accident, but it was the way Kyle was chased," she says, the tears not far away.

Lillian confides that she has visited the riverside many times but at the start did not want to go.

Sorry

"I felt so sorry for the youngsters down there. They were all talking about Kyle and they were coming over and some of the messages that they have left...sometimes... at the beginning it was so hard. It is as if you are closer. This is where it happened and you just stand and you look in the river and you think 'Why?' You just think 'Why did this have to happen?'" she said.

Praising the Tullyally Resource Centre staff, those at Institute and the YMCA among others, Mrs Bonnes said there were so many people at the funeral that it would have been impossible to get round everyone and the Resource Centre in particular gave people of all ages a focal point.

"It was just phenomenal the number of people that knew Kyle, and those people are not all making up how they thought about Kyle. We are by no means saying that Kyle was lily white, he was a typical 15-year-old boy," she says adding: "There are people I will never forget like that man Mark Sergeant. I don't even know that man, but he ended up injured. He had the time span to get round and get into the river to try and get Kyle out."

Reflecting on the press coverage in the days after the tragedy, Lillian's face clouds with hurt: "It was soul destroying. They also put in that the police had brought Kyle out of the water. It wasn't, it was Foyle Rescue. They put it out on Teletext that there was a disturbance. We have heard wee bits and pieces. There had been a wee group of them and some of them had gone to the chippy, but I have not set them down and said 'Can you tell me what happened?' I have not done that.

"But the Kyle I know and the Kyle I read about in the press is not the same person. I think there has been a deliberate attempt to go for sensational headlines."

Asked if Fiona is aware of what is going into the papers Lillian is candid: "Parts of it, a lot of it we don't even tell her, we don't even show her. We don't show her at all."

Referring to earlier that day when Kyle had appeared in court, Lillian's husband William adds: "There is no need for the court case against Kyle to be brought up each time because he was not found guilty of anything. They bring it in each time."

The impact of the media coverage on Fiona has been particularly hard.

"Fiona is distraught enough about what has happened Kyle and she cannot understand why they are making a big deal of Kyle being in court that morning. There is no connection there at all to me. They were two different incidents altogether. Kyle being in court had nothing to do, in my eyes, with him being drowned that night. Absolutely nothing. It does not matter what excuse they come back with," she said.

Mrs Bonnes confirmed that the Police Ombudsman had spoken to her daughter, but Fiona has not divulged a word of what has passed between the Ombudsman and her.

"Fiona has said that when it is all sorted out that we will hear, but they have only gone to Fiona's home and spoke to her. I don't have any faith in them anyway, but in their report I would like them to admit that the police were wrong. I would like them to explain to me why they chased a 15-year-old child. What was the reason? To me there is no justification for it.

Chase

"I have yet to hear 'Oh there were boys up there and they were wrecking cars', or 'They robbed an old person', you know. They are going to have to give justification for this chase," she said: "The Ombudsman has not given any reason for their investigation. Nothing."

Asked if Fiona had been told, Lillian adds: "She won't tell me. Fiona has given them her word and if Fiona gave you her word she wouldn't break it either. That's the type of person she is. I think Fiona is trying to get her head round all this and it is totally impossible. I want the truth to come out in that report."

She adds: "I cannot for the life of me even understand the time lapse between the incident and me having to go and formally identify Kyle. I need answers as to why they were chasing him? I would like to know what state their uniforms were in when they went back to the station, whether they were wet or dry?"

On Friday it was Fiona's 34th birthday.

"Fiona's birthday was on April 23 and her partner took her away to Donegal for a couple of days just to get a break to get away out of it. We as a family didn't even give Fiona birthday cards this year. Fiona would hardly have wanted birthday cards in among the 300 sympathy cards.

"I'm sure there must be at last 300 sympathy cards. What would she have done with birthday cards? Where would she have put them? She has lost her 15-year-old son. It doesn't bear thinking about. Fiona is our child. You don't expect to bury your child let along bury your grandchild. You don't expect that."