The Irish News
Simon Cunningham
An inquest into the death of a west Belfast man who died from a stroke on New Year's Day 1998 has heard allegations he had been attacked by RUC officers six months previously.
John Hemsworth, (39) of Conway Square died at the Royal Victoria Hospital after being admitted on December 28.
Two earlier inquests into his death were abandoned.
At the opening of the inquiry, which is expected to last two weeks, Coroner Brian Sherrard said the inquest would hear, "allegations that at 1am on July 7 1997, he was walking down Malcolmson Street when a group of men ran down the street towards Waterford Street chased by police vehicles.
"He alleged that police stopped in front of him and an officer hit him with a truncheon calling him a Fenian b******," he said.
"He said he was then hit on the left side of the jaw and when he got up, another officer hit him with the back of a truncheon.
"He said there was another verbal exchange between him and police at Dunville Park as he was going to hospital."
In 2000 a coroner ruled there was no need for an inquest after two pathologists said there was no connection between the alleged attack and Mr Hemsworth's death.
The attorney general later ordered that an inquest should take place after evidence from two senior pathologists suggested that the alleged attack was the "sole direct underlying cause of Mr Hemsworth's death".
In February a lawyer representing the Hemsworth family asked that the Stevens inquiry's archive be examined to see whether there was relevant evidence.
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