Massereene murders: Shivers guilty, Duffy cleared
Dissident republican Brian Shivers, who is terminally ill, is convicted of murdering two British soldiers in Northern Ireland but his co-accused Colin Duffy walks free.
Shivers, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, was found guilty at Antrim Crown Court of the killings Sappers Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, and Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham.
Judge Anthony Hart told a tense courtroom that the terminally ill dissident republican, 46, was responsible for the soldiers’ murders.
Earlier Colin Duffy, from Lurgan, was acquitted of the murders and six charges of attempted murder.
Mr Duffy’s friends and family let out an audible gasp when he was cleared of the murders, prompting the judge to ask his supporters to be removed from court.
Family members of the two soldiers broke down in tears on the other side of the court room. The Azimkar family left through another door and did not return for the ruling on Shivers.
The two sappers were shot dead by gunmen outside the Massereene barracks in Antrim on March 7 2009.
They were collecting pizzas at the front gate when they came under fire from from the breakaway republican group, the Real IRA.
They were the first soldiers to be murdered in Northern Ireland since 1997.
The verdicts come hours after two bomb blasts in Derry, which police have blamed on dissident republicans.
Duffy’s DNA
Mr Duffy’s DNA was found on a latex glove in a car that was at the scene of the crime.
Judge Anthony Hart told the court that he was satisfied that the DNA was Mr Duffy’s. He believed that Mr Duffy had been in the car at some point after it was purchased and had worn latex gloves knowing that it would be used to facilitate a criminal act.
But the judge said the prosecution had failed to establish that he was linked to the crime itself and the murder plot.
“I consider that there is insufficient evidence to satisfy me beyond reasonable doubt that whatever Duffy may have done when he wore the latex glove, or touched the seatbelt buckle, meant that he was preparing the car in some way for this murderous attack. And I therefore find him not guilty,” he said.
This is the second time that Mr Duffy has been cleared of murder.
The 44-year-old was cleared of an IRA murder 20 years ago and has been a high-profile breakaway republican ever since.
Shivers sentenced to life
Shivers, who is unemployed because of his illness and engaged to marry a Protestant woman, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Months before the 2009 Masserenne attacks, doctors told him he had only three or four years to live.
Mr Justice Hart said that Shivers had invented an alibi for his movements on the night of the murder.
His decision rested mainly on one piece of evidence: a match used to set alight the gunmen’s getaway car which had Shivers’ DNA.
The judge said he was satisfied that this linked him to the crime.
The two soldiers from 38 Engineer Regiment were about to leave Northern Ireland to begin a tour of duty in Afghanistan when they were killed.
Four other people, including two pizza delivery drivers, were injured in the gun attack.
A green Vauxhall Cavalier car was found abandoned eight miles from the scene. The car had been set alight, but it was not completely burnt out and DNA evidence recovered from the vehicle formed the basis for the trial of the two accused.