A sub-editor who was present when his newspaper’s building was bombed has died aged 85.

Tributes have been paid to Roy Shephard, who worked in the Belfast Telegraph’s features department during the worst of Northern Ireland’s Troubles.

Roy, pictured, was among those in the old Bel Tel Building on Royal Avenue on the day it was bombed by the Provisional IRA.

One man died and a number of others were injured in the attack.

Billy Graham, as deputy features editor, worked with Roy during his time at the Bel Tel, where he also wrote a regular television programmes update.

Billy told the paper: “Roy was always a close friend and colleague. He was a great and reliable all-rounder, and he knew his craft from back to front.

“He could tackle any job, and he was able to work at speed, an important quality for a good sub-editor in a busy daily paper.

“I have lost a great professional colleague and a friend.”

John Caruth, a sub-editor colleague at the Bel Tel, added: “Roy was a good journalist who had a talent for putting words together in a very readable way.”

Roy began his career on the Armagh Guardian and then moved to County Down Spectator, before joining the Bel Tel.

He took early retirement after 30 years in Belfast, but returned to the Bangor-based Spectator to work two days a week.

Roy is survived by wife Joan, to whom he had been married since 1957, children David, Jan and Elinor, seven grandchildren and a great-granddaughter, who was born recently in Hong Kong.

Mrs Shephard told the Bel Tel: “Roy had been ill for the past couple of years, but his sudden death is a great shock to all of us.

“He was a wonderful husband and a great family man, and we will all miss him greatly.”