The priest who officiated at today’s funeral of Real IRA |murder victim Kieran Doherty has hit out at those who murdered the father-of-one.

In his sermon in St Columba’s Church in Londonderry, Father Roland Colhoun said: “To those who killed Kieran, I think we should say: ‘You have brought terrible distress to Kieran’s family.

“You too, come from a family and you know what it means to hurt and to grieve. Have you never stood at the bedside of someone who is dying”.

Hundreds of people gathered this morning at Mr Doherty’s home in Derry before making their way to St Columba’s Church in Long Tower for Requiem Mass – the same church where he was to marry his fiancee and childhood sweetheart Mairead in June.

Speaking before the funeral, Mr Doherty’s mother Christine branded those behind the “appalling” killing as “scum”.

Mr Doherty was shot and his near-naked body dumped on a border road last Wednesday by the Real IRA, which claimed him as one of its members but said he had turned informer.

“They threw him in the road like a dog, brutally murdered him, stripped him, tied him up and shot him twice in the head. They gave us a reason about something to do with a criminal gang which is the first time I ever heard of it. I never heard of it in my life — Kieran being in a criminal gang,” said Mrs Doherty.

She added: “I have lost my only son who I was very proud of. He fought for his country, he loved his people. He loved the people he worked with, but from now on I don’t care about any of them. They’re nothing but scum to me.”

The father-of-one was shot in the head and his stripped and bound body dumped close to the border.

The Brandywell man — a grandson of prominent Derry civil rights activist Vincent Coyle — had been with his fiancee and two-year-old daughter Ceadach just hours before his death.

It has since emerged that Mr Doherty had claimed in the weeks leading up to his death that he had been approached by MI5 in an attempt to recruit him as an informer.

The family has also dismissed the Real IRA’s claims that he had been mixed up with drugs and other claims that he was killed because he was an informer.

Kieran’s uncle Vinny Coyle said there could be no justification for his nephew’s murder.

“They (M15) tailed him everywhere, but on the night of his murder, his abduction, they were nowhere to be seen. The family would also like to ask the First and deputy First Ministers to conduct an inquiry on the involvement of MI5,” he said.

Mr Doherty’s sister Leeanne said her brother had no idea his life was in danger.