A SUBMISSION by lawyers acting for a republican accused of murdering two British soldiers in Northern Ireland yesterday forced a judge to postpone a decision on whether he should stand trial.
Co Armagh man Colin Duffy, and his co-accused Brian Patrick Shivers from Co Derry, were due to hear whether they would be returned for Crown Court trial.
Mr Duffy (42), from Forest Glebe, Lurgan, and Mr Shivers (45), from Sperrin Mews, Magherafelt, are charged with shooting dead Sappers Mark Quinsey (23) and Patrick Azimkar (21) outside Massereene barracks in Co Antrim last year. The soldiers were gunned down as they collected a pizza delivery at the gates, hours before they were due to be redeployed to Afghanistan.
The prosecution case against the two defendants is based on DNA evidence found in a partially burnt-out Vauxhall Cavalier used in the attack. But in Coleraine Magistrates’ Court, a barrister for Mr Duffy presented a ruling from a separate case in a higher court that he claimed undermined the case against his client.
The Court of Appeal decision, he explained, had quashed the conviction of a defendant who had been found guilty on DNA evidence of better quality than that presented against his client.
The judge said the judgment was relevant and the prosecution needed time to consider it. – (PA)