FORMER SINN Féin councillor Brendan McConville (40) and John Paul Wootton (20) were yesterday convicted of the “callous and cowardly” murder of PSNI Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon, Co Armagh, three years ago.
McConville, of Glenholme Avenue, Craigavon, and Wootton, of Collindale, Lurgan, received mandatory sentences of life imprisonment for the murder of 48-year-old Constable Carroll. The minimum terms they must serve will be fixed at a later date by presiding judge Lord Justice Girvan.
Constable Carroll, from Banbridge, Co Down, was shot dead after he and a number of PSNI colleagues were lured to a Craigavon housing estate by a 999 call engineered by his Continuity IRA killers. Constable Carroll was the first PSNI officer to be murdered.
The evidence against the defendants was circumstantial, but Lord Justice Girvan said the case against them was “compelling”.
The judge said he believed the evidence of a witness called “M” that placed McConville at the scene at the time of the murder – even though it was claimed by defence lawyers that he was as “blind as a bat”. The judge said “M”, who is now in a witness protection programme, was able to read notes in court without the aid of glasses.
“M” had been warned to keep his mouth shut by two men who called to his house. “I am satisfied that those who intimidated him did so because they felt that he had valuable and damaging information about which they wanted him to keep quiet,” said the judge.
The judge referred to how a British army surveillance team had placed a tracking device in Wootton’s car, which was used on the night of the killing. Evidence was also downloaded from a computer which disclosed Wootton was involved with a dissident group called Craigavon Republican Youth New Unit.
The trial heard how Wootton tried to get information from a man whose girlfriend’s father was a police officer. When the man remonstrated with him, Wootton said, “A cop’s a cop.”
Lord Justice Girvan said a combination of factors such as “the presence of McConville at the firing point, his association with Wootton on the night in question”, gunshot residue, computer documents, photographs of Wootton in paramilitary uniform and his attempt to try to obtain the address of a PSNI officer led to “the conclusion that they were both intimately involved in the plan to murder the deceased”.
During the trial, Wootton’s mother Sharon Wootton (39), of the same address as her son, pleaded guilty to obstructing the police investigation into the murder. She admitted removing computer equipment from their house ahead of police searches.
