The children of a former local press journalist who died in 2014 have rubbished claims that he is still alive, after he was apparently filmed eating a curry earlier this month.

Harry Docherty began his career on the Derry Journal where he reported on the Blood Sunday massacre before going on to a career as a music journalist.

He died at the Royal Free Hospital in London aged 61 in 2014, but his widow, Lucy Watson, has claimed he appeared in a video shared by Indian restaurant Spice Cottage, located near her home in West Sussex.

Although Ms Watson said it must have been old footage, the restaurant claimed it was shot this month – sparking conspiracy theories that Harry was still alive.

Speaking to MailOnline, Ms Watson was adamant the man in the clip, circled above in a still from the video, was her late husband enjoying a meal with his son, Alex.

She said: “The moment I saw the thing, I thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s Harry’. It was so instant. I didn’t even have to think. He’d be eating a chicken korma because that’s all he ever ate. There was no doubt in my mind it was my husband.

“I just thought, ‘That’s an old video’. I posted asking [the restaurant] how old the footage was. I was only asking out of interest, then it all went crazy.

“It annoyed me when they [said] it was filmed last week. It can’t have been. Harry died in 2014. There’s absolutely no doubt about that.”

The restaurant is standing by its claims that the footage was shot following a refurbisment earlier this month.

Writing on behalf of the management, Bodrul Islam said: “The refurbishment was completed in early January and the promotional video highlights these changes. All videos used in the video were recorded in the week commencing January 9.”

Now Harry’s children are claiming a case of mistaken identity on the part of Ms Watson.

His daughter Kiera said: “The person Lucy Watson is mentioning was my dad, Harry, and my brother. This is 100pc not him.”

Harry’s son, Alex, also told MailOnline: “It’s not my dad and it’s not me. She [Ms Watson] got it wrong.

“You can see from the comments that people are really intrigued about it. They really want to know the answers. The answer is that it’s not my dad — that’s it.”

After his stint on the Journal, Harry moved to England, relaunching his career as a music journalist and working for the now-defunct Melody Maker.

He grew close to acts such as Thin Lizzy, The Boomtown Rats and Kate Bush as they burst onto the scene and also wrote the only official book on Queen, published in 2011 to tie in with the band’s 40th anniversary.

After he died, guitarist Brian May described Harry as “one of the good guys” and one of the first to write about the band.

Said May: “He was a trusted friend, one of the very few I have ever had in the music press, and I will miss him greatly.”