Published Friday, 13 January 2012
Francis Rowntree was only 11 when he was kiiled by a rubber bullet fired by the British Army during rioting in west Belfast.
He was hit in the head in the Divis Flats on the Falls Road on 20 April 1972.
Francis playing in the street and was not part of any trouble. He died two days later in hospital, becoming the first victim of a rubber bullet.
The soldier who fired the rubber bullet says it hit a lamppost and bounced away.
But a new investigation disputes that claim.
Professor Jack Crane told the Historical Enquiries Team that Francis's injury was consistent with a blow to the head "from the relatively close range discharge of a rubber bullet."
He said his injury "was as a result of a direct hit by a rubber bullet rather than as a result of a ricochet".
Francis's brother, who was just 14 at the time, said: "There are a whole lot of whys that you can ask. Why not come out and tell the truth? There are some lies getting told somewhere."
The soldier in question has been traced, but is in poor health.
He can't clearly recall what happened but asked investigators to pass on his heartfelt sorrow to Francis's family.
Despite the passage of time, relatives are still struggling to come to terms with their loss.
"I've lost a brother, a friend, what else can I say? How would anyone feel about losing their brother," he told UTV Reporter Sharon O'Neill.
The new HET report says the investigation carried out by the RUC at the time was ineffective because police didn't have the authority to directly interview military witnesses.
The HET says Francis was an innocent bystander, who posed no threat to anyone, and the army should apologise.
It has already been done in a number of other cases.
But Solicitor Padraig O Muirigh is concerned no-one will ever be brought before the courts.
"I have no doubt the acknowledgment of past wrong is important. But there is a clear view that the pursuit of justice has been sacrificed for what is essentially an information recovery process and there hasn't been any accountability for the actions of soldiers who were involved in this case and many others," he said.
Rubber bullets were considered so dangerous they were eventually replaced by plastic bullets, which also proved controversial.