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| Colin Duffy (centre) walks out of the Antrim Courthouse in Northern Ireland yesterday |
A dissident republican was convicted yesterday of shooting dead two British soldiers as they collected a delivery of pizzas outside an army base in Northern Ireland.
Brian Shivers, 46, was found guilty of killing Sappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey who were ambushed by gunmen from the Real IRA group outside Massereene barracks in Antrim in March 2009.
But there was gasps at Antrim Crown Court when Colin Duffy, a high-profile dissident republican charged with the same offences, was cleared. Two days after the killings, a policeman was shot dead.
The murders briefly sparked fears of a return to the sectarian violence which plagued Northern Ireland for three decades until it was largely ended by 1998 peace accords.
Judge Anthony Hart said that although the prosecution had proved that Duffy’s DNA was found on a latex glove inside a car used in the attack and on a seat buckle in the vehicle, it had failed to link him to the murder plot.
He said: “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.”
Duffy, who has grown a shaggy beard while in prison awaiting trial, left the court with family members.
After his acquittal, the families of the two soldiers broke down in tears and the Azimkar family left the courtroom and refused to return for the rest of the judgment.
Shivers, who suffers from cystic fibrosis and only has three or four years to live, was found guilty of six counts of attempted murder and one of possession of two firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
The judge, sitting without a jury, pointed to the fact that Shivers had tried to dispose of the car used in the attacks by setting it on fire as proof of his guilt.
The Real IRA, a paramilitary group seeking the end of British rule in Northern Ireland, broke off from the main IRA, or Irish Republican Army, in 1997. It was responsible for the worst single atrocity of the 30 years known as the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland when it bombed the town of Omagh in 1998, killing 29 people.
Duffy, 44, first came to prominence 20 years ago after he was cleared of a murder carried out by the IRA. Police said they would continue to investigate the Massereene barracks murders.
After the verdicts, Quinsey’s sister Jaime said: “After nearly three years of heartache we have come a little bit closer to justice.”
The soldiers - Quinsey was 23 and Azimkar was 21 - were about to begin a tour of duty in Afghanistan when they went to take delivery of pizzas at the front gate of the barracks, northwest of Belfast. Two pizza delivery drivers were among four other people injured in the attack.