The dad of a Newcastle United fan who died when the plane he was travelling on was shot down over eastern Ukraine said he was expecting the 'unlawful killing' inquest conclusion - but he still wants to know why it happened.
Barry Sweeney's son Liam, 28, was travelling to New Zealand with fellow supporter John Alder, 63, to watch the Magpies in a pre-season friendly. The pair were killed alongside 296 others who were on board flight MH17 when it was attacked while travelling from Amsterdam to Malaysia on July 17, 2014.
An inquest into the deaths of five of the British victims, including Liam and John, was held at the City Hall in Leicester on Friday. Professor Catherine Mason, Senior Coroner for Leicester, said she was satisfied that MH17 was shot down by a Buk missile fired by pro-Russian separatists.
She concluded that the five men - which also included Richard Mayne, 20, Glenn Thomas, 49, Ben Pocock, 20, had been unlawfully killed. The hearing heard how they had all died from multiple injuries.
The coroner said: "I am satisfied that MH17 was shot down by a Buk missile fired by pro-Russian separatists. Taking all of the evidence into account, an appropriate conclusion in relation to the deaths of Liam Sweeney, Richard Mayne, Glenn Thomas, John Alder and Ben Pocock is that they were unlawfully killed."
Barry, 60, who attended the inquest in person, told Chronicle Live: "It's what we expected - unlawful killing. We didn't expect anything else but it's something that had to be concluded. I wouldn't say I've got closure because I always say the only thing I want to know is why did it happen? We don't know why it happened.
"I still think at the time it wasn't intentional for that plane to be hit but it did happen. So there's got to be somebody out there who can tell us why. I don't think they meant to hit that plane, obviously the plane was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Barry, who lives in Longbenton, said that he attended the inquest in Leicester alongside two families of the other men killed in the atrocity. He said the other two families appeared in the court via a video link.
He said: "We have seen each other quite a few times over the last eight years. Liam was the first British body repatriated with the family. We went over to pick him up.
"The coroner's been involved since the start in 2014. She came to talk to us afterwards. She's very humble and she's done a great job. She couldn't really come up with anything else but at least I can say it was unlawful.
"She put a lot of work into it. She treat the families as families and also the people who died as real people and not just bodies. It's been good to have her on board really because she's done a lot of good things."
During the hearing, Prof Mason was told how four individuals linked to a Donetsk-based Russian separatist group have refused to attend a trial pending in The Hague, at which they are accused of responsibility for the attack.
In relation to the trial, Barry said: "That's going to be the conclusion. Obviously there's nobody there to be tried but under Dutch law they can still find them guilty. I hope that it does come to that. It would be nice for somebody to admit it but unfortunately in life people don't admit it."
MH17 was flying at around 33,000ft and was in a space which had not been subject to restrictions by any government. Detective Chief Superintendent Dominic Murphy, the head of operations for counter-terrorism policing unit SO15, described how a Dutch Safety Board Inquiry found a Buk missile system had downed MH17.
Mr Murphy told the inquest: "MH17 departed Amsterdam and had been flying for around three hours when it lost contact with air traffic control." Summarising the Dutch Safety Board’s inquiry, the senior officer said: "At that time a missile launching system was fired from a field in Ukraine. At that time a missile launching system was fired from a field in Ukraine. It actually detonated on the upper left side, in front of the cockpit of the aircraft.
"Fragments (of the missile) penetrated the left side of the cockpit… a pressure wave caused the fuselage to break up and caused the crash. That missile system appears to have been smuggled over the border into Ukraine from the Russian Federation on the 16th and 17th of July overnight."
Barry said that his son Liam was a fanatical Newcastle United fan and lived near St James' Park with his friend on Westgate Road in Newcastle. He said he worked at Morrisons in Killingworth and met John, who lived in Gateshead, while attending matches.
The ASDA delivery driver, who is originally from Killingworth, said: "I took him to his first game in 1999 and he fell in love with it. Him and John had become good friends through football. John had been going for years, he missed one game in 40 years - home and away. They put a lot of mileage in. They went to watch Newcastle and local football matches. They were married to football."
For the last eight years, Barry had been fighting to get answers about his son's death. He said: "You have got to move on in certain aspects and try and stay positive. If you don't you just end up a shell, it's just trying to keep people in the right frame of mind."
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