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'It's a hard pill to swallow' - Mother of Anthony Campbell appeals for son's case to be re-opened

The mother of innocent gangland victim Anthony Campbell wants her son's case to be re-opened. He ...
Jack Quann
Jack Quann

10.53 6 Jul 2021


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'It's a hard pill to swallow'...

'It's a hard pill to swallow' - Mother of Anthony Campbell appeals for son's case to be re-opened

Jack Quann
Jack Quann

10.53 6 Jul 2021


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The mother of innocent gangland victim Anthony Campbell wants her son's case to be re-opened.

He was killed in 2016 as part of a gangland feud in north Dublin while carrying out work at a property.

Christine Campbell told The Pat Kenny Show it is something she lives with every day.

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"It's like a dark shadow over you, you're carrying a weight on your shoulders.

"That's the only way I can explain it: you live it, you sleep it. Let's just say I've been on a very hard road".

Christine says she was convinced it was a mistake when she heard her son was killed.

"He went to do a job, he went to a house, his boss left him to get some tools that they needed for the radiator.

"I don't really actually know what happened in the house, but all I know is that my son was shot dead.

"In my mind he went to work that morning, and he never came home.

"He was just a young man, 20 years of age going out to work to do his job.

"I was actually in work at St James's Hospital and I got a phone call off a family member.

"My first reaction was 'They've got this wrong'... to me, I got the wrong phone call, that's what I actually thought at the time.

"Still when I went over to the house - not to the house where he was shot, to the house where he was living - I still thought there was a mistake.

"The only time I realised, when I knew it was right - because I still had a doubt he was going to walk up the stairs - is when a few days later I seen him on the slab.

"Then it hit me, because I still had that belief they got it wrong - but I think that was a shock reaction as well".

'I don't want him to be forgotten'

She says she believes her son was killed as he could have identified the gunmen.

And she would like a fresh pair of eyes to look at her son's murder.

"I would like the [Garda] Commissioner to actually look into it again.

"I just feel, as a person, Anthony, he was well-loved - I don't want him to be forgotten.

"He was a child that was loved by everybody and I just feel, as a mother, I'm fighting for justice for him because he meant the world to me.

"He was my only child, and to be left with nothing".

She says she would like to talk to Commissioner Drew Harris "to even have a phone call off him to tell me where we're at".

'A hard pill to swallow'

She says contact from the Gardaí was good in the beginning, but has since tapered off.

"I find as the years are going no there's no updates, I haven't heard from the Guards.

"I'm not slagging the Guards off here - I haven't heard from them but everytime I highlight it, they'll ring me and say something to me.

"And say 'We'll keep in contact' and then it goes again, it's a cold case again, I don't hear from them.

"There's all new detectives, it's nearly 15 years - most of the ones that was looking after his case are all gone now, retired.

"And I feel like they've forgotten him - not the old Guards, the new Guards.

"I know they're very busy over there, but to be left lingering for nearly 15 years it's a bit of a hard pill to swallow".

Asked if she believes the killers responsible have got away with it, she says: "In a sense, yeah.

"There's been no arrests - well, there was arrests - but there's been no one charged for it.

"So yeah I do feel that".

Main image: The hearse containing a coffin with Anthony Campbell's body passes down Church Street in Dublin's inner-city, near where he lived, in December 2016. Picture by: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

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Anthony Campbell Christine Campbell Drew Harris Dublin Finglas Gardai

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