A YOUNG police constable told Belfast Crown Court how on the night his colleague Stephen Carroll was murdered he requested additional backup because there were fears about entering the Drumbeg estate, a “dissident republican stronghold” in Craigavon, Co Armagh.
The officer, who was 22 when the Continuity IRA shot PSNI Constable Carroll in Lismore Manor beside the Drumbeg estate on March 9th, 2009, also described the confusion at the time of the attack and how initially he “did not really know what to do”.
Former Sinn Féin councillor Brendan McConville (40) from Aldervale, Tullygally, near Craigavon, and John Paul Wootton (20) from Collingdale, Lurgan are both charged with the murder of 48-year-old Constable Carroll. The first PSNI officer to be murdered, he died after he was struck by one of two bullets fired from a distance of some 50 metres by a gunman in the estate.
The prosecution contends it can connect the two men to the killing through DNA evidence and a British army vehicle tracking device in Mr Wootton’s car.
Police were answering an emergency call made at 8.41pm. The young constable, who was the observer in an armoured car driven by a woman constable, requested additional support to deal with the call.
A second car, which was not armoured, with three police officers and driven by Constable Carroll came to assist.
Before entering the Drumbeg estate area the two groups of officers met at a roundabout where the constable spoke to Constable Carroll, whom he didn’t know.
They drove together into Lismore Manor, a cul-de-sac of houses. He and his colleague backed into the house while Constable Carroll parked nearby.
The two officers got out of the car at the house. “I heard the two shots,” said the constable. “They were in quick succession, a second or so between each other.”
He said he crouched down beside his car and then saw two officers emerging from Constable Carroll’s vehicle. “One of the officers had his handgun drawn and appeared to be pointing it in several directions,” he said.
He added that his driver rolled their car very slowly out of the drive towards their two colleagues. “We spoke . . . words to the effect, ‘get into the vehicle and we will get out of here’. But he said, ‘Our driver is dead’.”
The court then heard how further police backup was brought to Lismore Manor and also how paramedics and doctors tried to revive Constable Carroll.
Ryan Murphy, who on Monday was issued with a court summons to give evidence, told of how he was visiting James Scullion and his girlfriend, called Sarah, at the house in Lismore Manor from where the 999 call was made to the PSNI on the night Constable Carroll was murdered. He told how some time after 8.30pm a brick was thrown through a back window, which prompted Sarah to phone the police.
It took a “long while” for them to come out but shortly after they came into the cul-de-sac he heard the gunshots, added Mr Murphy.
