Young bomb victim was buried in her mother’s wedding dress

FAMILY members of a teenager killed in the Omagh bombing atrocity described the harrowing scene when they later identified her at a makeshift mortuary at the Lisanelly army barracks.

Lorraine Wilson was only 15 and working in the Oxfam charity shop when she died alongside her friend, Samantha McFarland.

Her pen-portrait today at the public inquiry into the atrocity was prepared by her mother, Anne, sister, Denise and brother, Colin.

Lorraine’s sister, Denise, described the impact of going to identify their sister, and how her father, noticing a small pool of blood on her eye, wiped it away.

“This is all we have of you now,” Denise told the inquiry at the Strule Arts Centre.

“My mum was screaming and extremely upset. She had to leave immediately. My dad, Gary and I remained and held her hand, hugged her and touched her hair and we told her how much we loved her.

“We all tried to grasp the reality of the situation we were in. It was very traumatic. It was like the air had been taken from the room. We kept saying that this should never have happened.”

Lorraine was buried the following Wednesday wearing her mother’s wedding dress.

The family said that the following weeks, months and years were extremely difficult, and that they had all struggled to come to terms with the death of their daughter and sister.

The inquiry was told that Lorraine’s father was consumed by trying to achieve justice for his daughter.