Antrim man was murdered in cold blood - but his death was not in vain

A NEW podcast has shone a light on the murder of a policeman from Antrim, who was gunned down in a Belfast bar almost 30 years ago.

The 24-year-old was out drinking with friends in The Parliament Bar, an establishment favoured by the city’s gay community, on May 9 1997.

It was not his first time in the bar.

Indeed senior officers had warned him of the dangers of visiting it regularly. And, as they feared, sinister forces spotted the pattern.

At around 10pm that evening two armed men burst into the bar.

One trained his gun on the door staff while the second, who was wearing a wig and a painted on beard, singled out Mr Bradshaw. The INLA man shot him in the back, but the Antrim man managed to get to his feet.

The gunman responded by pumping two more rounds into him. Constable Bradshaw died at the scene.

A member of the IRSP, the INLA’s political wing, said that they had ‘no problem with the attack’ - even though Mr Bradshaw was a member of the gay community.

“He was a member of the RUC. He put on a police uniform and became part of a state which oppresses nationalists. His sexuality is irrelevant,” the spokesman said.

At the time of his death, the local man was suspended from the force after he had been pictured during a sting on ‘cottaging’ in Omagh - and consequently his personal protection weapon had been taken away from him.

Nevertheless, Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan joined mourners at Mr Bradshaw’s graveside at Belmont Cemetery.

The wheels have turned slowly in the Darren Bradshaw case.

But now the case has been looked at again with fresh eyes.

Podcast presenter Jordan Dunbar grew up in Belfast and was a comedian and drag performer.

He heard about Darren’s story and has now produced a six part series, called ‘Blood on the Dance Floor’.

Jordan explained: “The first time I saw a picture of Darren, it just stayed with me, his eyes are so alive. I’d danced in the bar where the murder took place.”

“The story grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. Everyone we spoke to said that this guy should be on stage having roses thrown at him, not petrol bombs.”

Jordan uncovered stories of bigotry, bravery and betrayal - speaking to Darren’s brother, teachers and pals from Ardnaveigh High School, people who knew him from the club scene and those who worked with him in the RUC.

The podcast, being broadcast on Radio 4 and the BBC Sounds app, hears how Darren’s mother was ‘destroyed’ by the murder and how his brother Scott visits his grave and ‘has a drink and a chat’ with his sibling.

Scott described what it was like growing up in the mixed estate of Rathenraw.

As the series progresses, listeners learn how claims about Darren’s sexuality brought him trouble with the RUC, leading to his suspension, and how someone from his school days that he met randomly at a party, sold him out.

With the ‘trusting, naive’ cop spending more time at The Parliament, described as ‘the only safe haven for gay people in Belfast’, danger was lurking.

During the series, pals recall that Darren ‘could have been a West End star’, thrilling audiences at school plays, with his party piece a sinister entrance to ‘Ganster’s Paradise’ by Coolio.

Teacher Gary True said that Darren was ‘one of the nicest pupils I have ever come across’, being ‘intelligent, sensitive and thoughtful’.

Despite coming from a forces family, it was a shock to many that Darren joined the RUC as a reservist just days after his 21st birthday.

There are a number of shocking revelations in the podcast.

Just months before he was killed, Darren’s brother Simon -with whom he had shared a room, along with young Scott - had been killed in a car accident as he travelled from Bosnia to Germany, where he had been serving in the army.

It was a chance meeting with an old school pal who was on weekend release from prison at a party which sealed Darren’s fate - on two counts.

Later caught driving a stolen car, the criminal told officers that he knew a policeman who was gay and had taken his gun to a party.

Darren was called in for questioning and another officer recognised him from photographs taken of the cottaging sting in Omagh - and he was suspended and his gun removed, despite Darren’s claims that he had been using the public toilet, someone had tried to get into his cubicle, he had prevented them and left the building - all they had was a picture of him outside.

Darren was supported by his trainer at the police college Vincent, who had a drink with Darren the day before he died and who had to identify his body.

Vincent later went on to honour Darren’s legacy by helping to found the Gay Police Officers’ Association.

But the man from the party, also facing a drugs-related punishment shooting, saved his own skin once again by telling Republican paramilitaries of where they could find a policeman who regularly attended a city centre bar in Belfast - an easy target.

As Jordan explained: “For his own skin, he traded Darren’s life.”

Despite warnings from friends and colleagues that his movements were being watched, Darren continued to socialise at The Parliament, where the clientele was described as ‘a big family’.

Jordan Dunbar said that, like Rathenraw, it was a place where ‘people from across the divide could meet’.

Among the other revelations in the podcast is that Crumlin man, actor and DJ Kristian Nairn, who starred as Hodor in Game of Thrones, was present in the bar that night and witnessed the murder while out with friends.

Darren arrived at 8pm that night, parking his blue Mini outside - friends said that he had been intending to meet someone. The DJ, Robert, told the ardent dance music fan that he had some new records to play upstairs in the club, later that night.

At around 10pm, a red Toyota Carina pulled up outside and a ‘big guy in a big grey wig and a painted on beard’ entered the bar.

Mr Nairn said: “It was badly done, me and my friends went ‘look at the state of him’. There was a very loud ‘bang...bang...bang’. Then (the gunman) legged it out, he kicked the doors open, we all made eye contact with him.

“It all happened so fast, there was a stunned silence, like a bomb had gone off, there was a horrible atmosphere in the room.”

Bouncers rushed in to perform first aid, put Darren in the recovery position and tried to stem the bleeding before herding everyone out - in hindsight, emptying a room full of witnesses, many of whom ran from the scene and some of them even stained with Darren’s blood, because of the stigma of being seen in a gay bar in those days.

Pal Vincent said when he got a phonecall that night: “I just knew, I had lunch with him the day before and warned him again about the dangers of going to Parliament, now I was going to identify his body.

“I felt sick in the gut, I felt very sad, it shouldn’t have happened.

“I thought, what a loss, it was preventable, he shouldn’t have been there, I knew from that point on nothing would be the same again..”

Twenty miles away, Darren’s 15-year-old brother, with whom he had shared a bedroom, was woken up.

“I remember that day like it was yesterday, not a day goes by I don’t think about it three or four times. That Friday I went out, Darren was home, I came back, he had gone out, I went to bed and the next thing my uncle and dad were waking me up and telling me Darren was dead, just six months after our brother Simon was killed.

“I thought it was another car accident but my uncle said there was a gun involved. I knew he had been murdered, it broke my heart, it really did, I went into the bedroom and gave Mum a hug.”

Darren’s mother visited the Parliament, had coffee with his friends and spoke to them about her son. She later laid flowers at the spot during a vigil attended by around one hundred people and again chatted to those in attendance.

16 hours after the murder, the IRA called Downtown Radio denying responsibility and 40 minutes later, the Belfast brigade of the INLA told the BBC that they carried out the murder.

Scott Bradshaw said that rank and file INLA supporters came to the house in Rathenraw to say they were sorry for that had happened.

“They were all there for my Mum, they were very good with her. That was what it was like, it was a community and everyone looked after their own.

“Darren grew up in the estate and they knew him, he was a face to a name, they saw him cycling his bike on Christmas day, they weren’t Republicans to us, they were friends, your friends Mums and Dads, next door neighbours.”

Just on the verge of turning 16, Scott said that he could not face his brother’s funeral, to which thousands turned up.

Scott quoted his father, saying that Darren had been ‘murdered by terrorists, but assassinated by the Press’ - essentially dying twice, with tabloids running lurid headlines about Darren’s private life.

“They tore Darren apart, they wanted to crucify him for being gay, it was unforgivable what they wrote about him,” said Scott.

However Jim McDowell from the Sunday World, interviewed on the podcast, said that Darren’s family had never complained to him.

Friends said that Darren was ‘just a really good guy, motivated by making the world a better place, being a good cop’ and ‘a sound guy, never heard a bad word said about him’.

While Mr Dunbar said that while there was a sense that the RUC didn’t properly investigate the murder and that the death of gay police officer had been swept under carpet, he was able to obtain details of the investigation which have never been made public.

While it was true that dozens of people ran away from the scene before the police and press arrived, officers interviewed 78 witnesses and took statements from 26 members of staff at the Parliament.

The police searched 16 houses and arrested ten people.

One witness was said to be the man that Darren had arranged to meet that night, but claimed not to have seen him in the busy bar - prompting a theory that he may have been the lookout for the gunmen, as it was not a large venue and Darren had been there all night.

The INLA had put into place their plan 24 hours earlier.

The getaway car had been stolen off the lower Ormeau Road and false number plates were attached. It made its way from The Parliament along Clifton Street and Carlisle Circus, cutting up another driver as it made its way onto the Westlink, later being found burned out in the Falls area.

The fire brigade salvaged a false number plate and 20 years later, DNA evidence linked a fingerprint to an individual, but they could not be linked to the actual murder.

The podcast explores the ripples that Darren’s murder caused, out into the community for months and years to come.

Darren was the first police officer to be killed since the IRA ceasefire and the first murdered by paramilitaries since Tony Blair became Prime Minister.

Some claimed that his death was in retaliation for the killing of Robert Hamill, beaten to death by a mob in Portadown - with allegations that RUC officers watched and did not intervene.

And just hours later, local GAA stalwart Sean Brown was kidnapped and murdered by Loyalists.

Said Scott: “Deluded Loyalists took revenge against an innocent Granda, the pettiness of it, you do something to me, I do something back, that was just Northern Ireland, pettiness.”

There were rumours that the IRA had sanctioned the killing by the INLA, which had been riddled with internal feuds and had not been active for the two years previously.

The killing also had a huge impact on the gay community, who felt ‘disgusted and betrayed’ that their safe spaces were now under threat.

Gay people were increasingly exposed to blackmail, used as informers and were now presumably being used in honeytraps by the paramilitaries.

The police investigation ended up ‘outing’ many people who had not yet told family and friends of their sexuality.

Kristian Nairn was also thrown out of his grandfather’s home after he was told by a nosy neighbour that the bar where his grandson had witnessed a shooting was frequented by the gay community.

And in a heartbreaking twist, Scott says he knows exactly who killed his brother - and has even bumped into him.

“I was given the gunman’s name from the start and it is the same to this day. I asked people and they came back with names and answers, I trust them. I wanted to know why.

“The name of the driver was mixed up and there was some confusion over the guy who held the doorman up.”

Scott had joined the Irish Guards but he says himself he ‘went crazy and didn’t care about anything anymore’.

He spiralled into drink and drugs.

“I was always Simon’s brother or Darren’s brother, people were always sniggering about Darren being gay.”

Home on leave on the eve of the Millennium, at a house party in Stiles, a melee broke out after a gang linked to the UVF attempted to gain entry, resulting in the death of Caulside man Denver Smith - buried just a few rows away from Darren and his mum in Belmont Cemetery.

Scott, just 19, was jailed for Grievous Bodily Harm and for assisting an offender by removing weapons from the scene. Eight people were jailed in total in connection with the attack.

“Nothing that happened to me justified what I did, what happened that night or my part in that.

“If it is any comfort to family, I am very sorry that it ever had to happen, it shouldn’t have, none of our paths should have that night, but that unfortunately they did.”

Ten years after Darren’s murder, Irish police recovered a Glock firearm thought to have been used in the killing, matching the bullet casings found in The Parliament, but no DNA was recovered.

Scott took his son to a venue in Belfast and saw the man who he thinks shot his brother, standing just 20 feet away from him.

The suspected gunman, said Jordan Dunbar, has been linked to a litany of shootings, punishment beatings and hostage takings.

“I recognised him straight away. I just felt pure hatred. He disappeared and I thought I would never see him again, but he ended up sitting not even six feet away from me, chatting away.

“No one wants cases solved, it is all brushed under carpet for the good of the peace process.

“We will never get justice, the police do know who done it, but they don’t have enough evidence. He’ll go about his life, with his kids and grandkids

“He didn’t see a person, he saw a uniform. What he did to my mother - my mother went to the grave broken hearted - what he done to her alone I will never forgive him for. My family will never forgive him.”

Talking about amnesties for terrorists and early release schemes, Scott said: “Anyone who thinks this is a good idea has never lost anyone in those circumstances. The Troubles were very good for serial killers in this country”

The PSNI has said that the murder investigation is not ‘active’ but is still ‘open’ if any new information comes to light.

Scott said that his mum was determined that her children wouldn’t give in to hatred or revenge

“We were proud to be British, our neighbours had the right to be proud to be Irish, there is more that unites you than divides you, we have more in common with someone up the Falls and Shankill, than we do with someone in Manchester or Dublin and once people in Northern Ireland realise that, we can move forward

“Stop torturing victims and get this country working. I want my boys to come up in a world where people just get along.”

Vincent, Darren’s trainer said that his death would not be in vain.

“I said to his Mum had we can’t bring him back or change anything and it sounds stupid making promises beside a coffin.”

However he added that Darren’s legacy was that he helped change things for the police service - as individuals, as an environment and a place to work in and for working with the community.

Paul Bloomer, co-chair of the PSNI LGBT+ Network said: “Darren is the reason that no gay police officer will ever find themselves isolated and abandoned again, that the police can march in Belfast Pride. Darren is not forgotten, we keep his memory alive as the first visible LGBT police officer in Northern Ireland - he was himself

“I, his colleagues, his community and everything we do today is built on his shoulders.”