The couple who died when a stolen vehicle collided with their car at the weekend have been buried in a Belfast cemetery. Justine and Charmaine Watson from west Belfast were killed, and their three-year-old son, Tyler, seriously injured when a stolen car hit their vehicle on the Bally money to Portrush Road on Friday.
Mr Brian Donnelly (20) from west Belfast, one of four men travelling in the stolen car, was also killed.
Addressing mourners yesterday at the funeral service of Mr and Mrs Watson in St Matthew's parish church, off the Shankill road, the Rev Gregory Dunstan, said there was "deep, deep anger at the destruction of a family". Mr Dunstan questioned what drew young people into this "fatal addiction to cars, speed, crime and danger" and said it was the family's deepest wish that no one else would suffer in the future as they are suffering now. "If Justine and Charmaine are the last to die in this way, something will have come out of their death." Shops along the Shankill Road closed as the two hearses travelled the short distance from their home on the Woodvale Road to the church where the couple had married four years previously. The couple were later buried in Roselawn cemetery.
Tyler Watson remains in a critical condition in a Belfast hospital. Despite extensive injuries, doctors believe he will make a full recovery. His sister Connie (6) who was not in the crash, is being cared for by relatives.
Speaking yesterday on BBC Radio Ulster, Ms Carmel Donnelly said she was "disgusted" at her son's involvement in stealing cars but that she still loved him.
Mr Donnelly, a front-seat passenger in the car, had 11 convictions for vehicle crime in the last two years and had been the victim of a paramilitary punishment attack.
A Belfast teenager has been formally charged at Coleraine Magistrates Court in connection with the accident. The driver of the stolen car and another passenger remain seriously ill in hospital.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, yesterday expressed his sympathy to the families of those killed and especially to the two children left orphaned.
Mr Adams described car-theft as a "scourge" on the community in west Belfast. "Within the past year, five people have been killed in this area and countless other lives ruined. It is a problem which requires a multi-agency approach, it can no longer be ignored by the statutory bodies," he said.