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:::u.tv:::
3 Feb 2012
The widow of one of the men murdered in the Loughinisland massacre has begun a High Court challenge to a report which said there was insufficient evidence of security force collusion.
Six Catholics were killed and five others were seriously wounded when UVF gunmen opened fire at the Heights Bar in Co Down in 1994.
Barney Green was 87 when the shooting took place, making him one of the oldest victims of the Troubles.
His wife Brigid is seeking to have the Police Ombudsman’s report quashed.
No one has been convicted of the murders, although 16 people have been arrested in connection with the attack.
Victims’ relatives suspect the RUC investigation was undermined in order to protect informants.
But in June last year Mr Hutchinson found there was insufficient evidence of collusion between police and the loyalist gang.
The ombudsman did identify failings in the investigation, criticising it for a lack of diligence, focus and leadership.
His report is now to be the subject of a legal challenge which will also focus on a Criminal Justice Inspectorate review of Troubles-related investigations.
That hearing was put on hold on Friday while lawyers for Mrs Green contest a decision to refuse legal aid funding for their case.
A judge is expected to decide on the issue of funding following further submissions later this month.
However, Mrs Green’s case against the Ombudsman is not thought to depend on securing legal aid.
Outside the court her solicitor, Paul Pierce, of Kevin R Winters and Co, said: “Our challenge to the Police
Ombudsman’s report has been brought because of a number of significant failings in the investigation.
“These include those pointed out by the Criminal Justice Inspectorate.”
By Ian Cullen
Derry Journal
4 February 2012
A former top secret briefing document signed off by the commander of British Army Ground forces in Derry during Operation Motorman reveals the entire plan for the storming of ‘no go’ areas in the city. In this article IAN CULLEN explores the details of the paper which was released by the Public Records Office to legal teams acting in the recent inquest into the shooting dead of 15 year-old Daniel Hegarty .
Soldiers stormed Derry’s no-go areas expecting to fire “thousands of rounds” during Operation Motorman, according to the blueprint for what was a part of the biggest British military operation since the Suez crisis.
Almost 40 years on and the ‘Journal’ can now reveal the extent to the British army was willing to go to “neutralise the gunmen” in the Bogside and Creggan, according to once highly classified documents obtained from the Public Records Office in Kew, London. The document, which was signed off by A.P.W. (Patrick) McLellan, Brigadeer, Commander 8th Infantry Brigade on July 29, 1972 maps out the details of how events were supposed to unfold during Operation Carcan (the name given to the Derry action as part of the Northern Ireland-wide Operation Motorman) which by the end of the first day saw the shooting dead of two people, one a 15 year-old boy, and serious wounding of another teenager.
It states that the British Government decided on “resolute action” against the Provisional IRA following the breaking of the ‘bi lateral truce’ ceasefire which began in June 1972 to facilitate the famous Cheyne Walk talks between a delegation including Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness and Whitehall representatives led by then Secretary of State William Whitelaw.
The briefing paper states that the offensive action of flooding Derry with many hundreds of heavily armed troops, accompanied by Centurion tanks and other heavy machinery, was designed to “root out the terrorists once and for all”.
It further states that the Provisional IRA action in light of the operation was expected to take “one of two forms”, the more likely of which was to fight with the possibility of combatants going to ground being deemed “unlikely after their frequent boats that the security forces will not be allowed to occupy the Creggan and Bogside again”.
The following extract indicates what the of how the soldiers from the various regiments deployed to Derry on July 31, 1972 expected to be greeted in the city. “There may be fierce firefights lasting perhaps 2/3 hours. Thousands of rounds may be fired and there may be some civilian casualties. IRA positions will be quickly pinpointed and effective action will be taken against them, including hot pursuit. Thereafter sporadic sniping and the occasional ambush or bomb attack is likely to be the extent of IRA operations . . . Although from the start of the operation there is a danger that routes and houses may be booby-trapped or mined.”
Several British army regiments were in action during Operation Carcan including the Coldstream Guards, Kings Own Border, Royal Scots Regiment, Light Infantry Regiment, Royal Green Jackets, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, Royal Horse Guards, Ulster Defence Regiment, and Medical Regiment.
After the activation of Operation SPONDON – the standing plan to seal off the border areas – the plan was to bus troops into the city using armoured personnel carriers (APCs) accompanied by tanks and an assault vehicle of the Royal Engineers (AVRE) to remove the barricades “as quickly as possible”.
“Within minutes it is the intention that the whole area will be saturated and held, thereby avoiding any prolonged street fighting,” the document states.
It further states that there will be “no firing unless vehicles are ambushed or it is essential to return fire”.
The documents anticipates “total domination” of the ‘no-go’ areas within 2-3 days, although it outlines that subsequent interrogation and intelligence gathering may last anything up to three months “by which time it is anticipates that the Provisional IRA in Londonderry will be neutralised and demoralised”.
Certain houses and known IRA combatants “will require particular attention”, according to the document which includes an annex with the heading ‘Alphabetical list of all known IRA members’. Although the members identities are not disclosed in the document – which was released by public records office to legal teams acting in the recent inquest into the shooting dead of 15 year-old Daniel Hegarty by a Royal Scots Regiment soldier armed with a general purpose machine gun (GPMA) at Creggan Heights during the operation – it does contain a detailed list of weapons believed to be held by both wings of the IRA in Derry at the time. The extensive list includes grenades, flamethrowers, mines, various heavy and light machine guns (including around 75 Armalites and several belt-fed Browning machine guns), shotguns, sidearms, explosives, detonators, anti-tank rifles and even a Luger.
The briefing paper makes clear that it will be impossible to conceal that the operation is imminent in the hours before “D-Day” as the amount of troop movement will be visible to all. However, with hindsight senior British army officers were said to have been dismayed at the very least that on the eve of the action William Whitelaw announced on the evening news that the major operation was about to happen.
As Major David Dickson told the recent fresh inquest into the death of Daniel Hegarty – who was found to be completely innocent when he was shot by a soldier in the platoon commanded by the then Lieutenant – that the Secretary of State’s public announcement “destroyed the element of surprise”. “It gave the other side a better chance to finish their defences . . . it increased the level of danger we were all facing,” he said. Major Dickson also told the coroner’s court that he and his men were “prepared for battle” in the Creggan and had intelligence that there was a mine field at Piggery Ridge, which was their entry point into the ‘no go’ area.
In fact ,the result of the Whitelaw announcement and earlier intelligence reports led to the IRA actually going to ground, relocating en mass to south of the border refuges in Donegal.
Although there were no IRA confrontations with the British army on the day, the use of force was clear in the Brigadeer McLellan’s briefing paper. “IRA armed attacks and other forms of violence are to be defeated by resolute armed action in accordance with the rules of engagement . . . soldiers may also fire without warning under para 12 of the Yellow Card [a guide for soldiers on using force – ed].”
It also outlines action to be taken against “passive resistance”, citing the example of “women sitting on roads”. The actions include ordering them to disperse, trying to go around, using water canon and even using CS smoke.
The document stresses several times that action is to be taken against the IRA and not the Catholic population. However, the people of the Bogside and Creggan and many well beyond were left in no doubt as to their beliefs of the operation after on the fatal shootings of Daniel Hegarty and unarmed IRA volunteer Seamus Bradley, and the wounding of Daniel’s cousin Christopher. Anticipating such a reaction, the document even states that the Unit Public Relations Officers “should make every effort to collect and conduct press and TV men in their areas in the hope that the news men will subsequently give a balanced report to their readers and viewers on the proceedings.”
BBC
3 Feb 2012
A conflict resolution centre to be built on the site of the former Maze prison will be no shrine to IRA terrorism, Jeffrey Donaldson has said.
He was speaking as European funding of £18m was approved for a peace building on the grounds of the former H-blocks.
The prison was the focus for the world’s media during the republican hunger strikes in which 10 men died.
The choice of the Maze site for a conflict resolution centre has been strongly criticised by some unionists.
They believe that it is too much part of the fabric of republican history.
However Mr Donaldson, the DUP MP for Lagan Valley, firmly rejected such criticism.
“It is going to be a new purpose-built building on the Maze site. It is not in an H-block, it is going to be in a new build,” he told the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster.
“This is a small part of the overall Maze site which will be developed for a number of other purposes – indeed, the Royal Ulster Agriculture Society is planning to relocate there.”
Mr Donaldson said there had been wide consultation on the issue with a range of people, including those from government and ex-military backgrounds as well as victims.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
When people see the detail, it will reassure them. Far from it being seen as a shrine, it is about looking to the future. The peace building centre can help us look and focus towards the future”
Jeffrey Donaldson
“I know a lot of Protestants who would support this on the basis of what has been agreed. It is about promoting dialogue and it is a way forward,” he said.
“I would also like to see the Maze site developed. I represent people who live in that area. There is high unemployment. They want to see the government getting on with this.
“Contrary to the view that this will be divisive, when people see the detail, it will reassure them. Far from it being seen as a shrine, it is about looking to the future. The peace building centre can help us look and focus towards the future.”
The peace building project is set to be confirmed in the coming weeks as part of a £300m redevelopment of the 350-acre site near Lisburn.
Toxic
However, Ulster Unionist Mike Nesbitt disagreed with Mr Donaldson.
He said that his party feared that Maze would turn out like the Boston College Belfast Project which is now at the centre of a legal wrangle over controversial interviews given by former paramilitaries.
“It would become toxic,” Mr Nesbitt said.
“What will happen if we go ahead with this is that a large section of the community from the Protestant/Unionist side will not only feel they cannot support it, they will build their own conflict centre. We will continue to have a shared-out – rather than a shared – future.
“Our difficulty is that we do not agree about anything in terms of the past. All we can do is ensure that everyone can buy in and tell their versions of the story.”
Sinn Fein MLA Raymond McCartney welcomed progress on the development of the site.
“The redevelopment of the Long Kesh site will not only create jobs but will also be a shining example of how the North accepts diversity,” he said.
“The building of a conflict resolution centre will see it becoming a venue for assisting other troubled parts of the world and also a resource for those researching the Irish peace process.
“This funding will, I believe, kick-start the process of transforming the former Long Kesh site into an asset that will serve all the people in the years ahead, not only in providing a first class facility in conflict resolution and tourist attraction but also as an economic driver in the Lisburn area.”
Since the Maze closed 12 years ago there has been a constant debate about how the extensive site should be used.
It was ear-marked for a new national sports stadium but the proposal was rejected after years of disagreement.
The conflict resolution centre will provide a place for visitors from around the world to exchange views on conflict transformation, a focus for education and research about the troubles together with exhibition space and an archive.
It is envisaged there will be input from ex-prisoners, prison officers and victims.
The centre will sit alongside a preserved H block and other buildings, including the chapel and the hospital where the hunger strikers died.
Ten members of the IRA and INLA died on hunger strike in the Maze in 1981 and it was also the scene of their ‘dirty protest’. Thirty-eight IRA prisoners also took part in the largest prison escape in British history in 1983.
UDA leader Jackie McDonald has said that the five victims of a 1992 gun attack on a bookies in south Belfast were innocent, 20 years after the massacre was carried out by loyalist paramilitaries.
:::u.tv:::
2 Feb 2012
**Video onsite
But McDonald, who was in jail at the time of the killings, has told UTV he “can’t say sorry” – because he “wasn’t part of it”.
Four men and a 15-year-old boy were shot dead in Sean Graham’s bookmakers on the Ormeau Road, in broad daylight on February 5 1992.
Two UFF gunmen carried out the attack using a rifle and a Browning pistol.
A probe by the Historical Enquiries Team resulted in investigators stating in September 2010 that the pistol had actually been handed back to the gang by police – fuelling collusion theories.
No one has ever been brought to justice over the murders.
“There are obviously questions around who armed the loyalists, who allowed it to happen, who decided that individuals would never be prosecuted,” Mark Sykes, who was wounded in the attack, told UTV.
At the time, the UDA tried to justify the shootings in a statement that ended with the words: “Remember Teebane.”
Eight men were killed and six others injured when their construction van was blown up by a roadside bomb planted by the IRA, on January 17 1992.
But Rev Ivor Smith, a now retired Presbyterian minister who has worked with the Teebane victims’ families since the atrocity told UTV the message of retaliation was “like a knife through the heart”.
“We were absolutely appalled at the thought that somebody would try to do something like that and justify it by bringing in Teebane,” he said.
“As far as the families were concerned, it was very definitely not ‘in my name’.”
Twenty years on, both attacks remain open wounds that have devastated families and left them with questions that might never be answered.
It will be cold comfort for them that the UDA leader now says the escalating violence and mass killings of the time actually hastened the peace process.
By Barry McCaffrey
TheDetail.tv
4 Feb 2012
**Via Newshound
THE families of five men killed in a UDA gun attack 20 years ago will this morning reveal new evidence which they say questions whether there was ever a proper police investigation to bring the killers to justice.
Sean Graham’s bookmakers on Belfast’s Ormeau Road was filled with 13 customers shortly before 2.30pm on February 5, 1992 when two masked loyalist gunmen burst through the door.
In less than 20 seconds the gunmen fired 46 rounds hitting all but one of those trapped in the tiny room.
Jack Duffin (66), William McManus (54), Christy Doherty (52) and Peter Magee (18) were all killed outright as one gunman opened fire with an assault rifle while an accomplice walked through the shop shooting the dead and injured as they lay defenceless on the ground.
Fifteen-year-old school boy James Kennedy died on arrival at hospital.
This morning a new report, compiled by the victims’ families and Relatives for Justice support group, will cast major doubt over the original police investigation into the atrocity.
Bookmakers Massacre: William McManus, Jack Duffin, Christy Doherty, James Kennedy, Peter Magee
It is just the latest report, following Loughinisland, McGurk’s Bar, Claudy and the murder of Mary Travers in which it is claimed police failed to carry out a proper investigation into the killings.
“The scene was horrific with bodies everywhere,” paramedic Harry Whan recalled following the 1992 attack.
“In that confined space there was the smell of gunfire and all the bleeding and whatever that you couldn’t describe… for other ambulance men it was worse; they were knee deep in it, dealing with the dead and dying.”
Immediately after the attack the gunmen calmly walked back across the Ormeau Road to a waiting getaway car.
Despite eyewitness identification of the killers and forensic evidence recovered from two getaway cars no one has ever been brought to justice for the atrocity.
In 2003 the Irish News revealed how one of the weapons used in the murder had been in the possession of RUC Special Branch three years before the attack but that police had handed the gun back to the UDA.
Police procedures meant the weapon should have been bugged and a plan put in place to prevent it being used in further attacks.
This was never done.
The Browning pistol was subsequently used in a gun attack on the Devenish Bar in west Belfast in December 1991 in which Catholic civil servant Aidan Wallace was shot dead dead and an eight year-old boy was blinded in one eye after he was shot in the face by gunmen.
Six weeks later the weapon was used in the Ormeau Road attack.
Special Branch later claimed it had deactivated the weapon before handing it back to UDA Quartermaster Billy Stobie in November 1989.
However victims’ families say they have now uncovered new evidence which contradicts the Special Branch claims and raises major concerns that no serious effort has ever been made to catch the UDA killers.
In 2010 the families were informed by the Historic Enquiries Team (HET) that police had “disposed of” interview notes of two loyalists who’d been caught in possession of the Browning three months after the bookmaker’s attack.
Despite being caught red handed with the murder weapon, neither man faced any charges in connection with the bookmaker’s massacre.
It would later emerge that one was the son of an RUC man.
Two senior detectives who headed the investigation into the bookmaker’s murders failed to co-operate with the HET inquiry into the killing.
Documents have come into the possession of the families which contradict police claims that the murder weapon had been deactivated by Special Branch and that the interview notes of the two murder suspects had been destroyed.
In October 2011 the families’ solicitor obtained papers from the Court Service relating to the arrest of the two loyalists who’d been found in possession of the murder weapon three months after the attack on the bookmakers.
The documents included the police interview notes of the two gunmen, which the families had previously been told had been destroyed.
Despite having been found in possession of a weapon that had killed six people and injured ten others the police interview notes reveal that neither man was questioned about the bookmakers or Devenish Bar attacks.
However, the families are also now demanding answers after a forensic report disclosed in the same papers contradict Special Branch claims that it had deactivated the weapon.
Instead forensic scientists who examined the weapon found it to be in “good condition… mechanically sound… when test fired it functioned correctly.”
Mark Sykes was shot and seriously wounded in the 1992 attack, while his brother-in-law Peter Magee was killed.
Mr Sykes says there are now serious questions in relation to the events surrounding the bookmaker’s massacre.
“Special Branch always claimed that this Browning pistol had been deactivated but the forensic scientists who tested it when it was recovered three months after the massacre clearly show that it was in full working order,” he said.
“This points to the fact that Special Branch gave this weapon back to the UDA knowing that it was capable of murder.
“It went on to kill six people and injure 10 others.
“Now 20 years after the massacre we discover that when police found it in the possession of two known loyalists three months after the atrocity they didn’t even ask one question about the attack?
“In fact if it had not been for the work of our solicitor and Relatives for Justice we would never have found out about any of this, because what police told us was clearly not the truth.”
Security force agents Brian Nelson, Ken Barrett and Billy Stobie who supplied the murder weapons
The families are now calling for a full public apology from Prime Minister David Cameron and a new independent review of all the evidence in the case.
“Even before we uncovered these hidden documents there was clear evidence of security force collusion in these attacks,” Mr Sykes continued.
“The guns were `stolen’ from Malone UDR army barracks by Special Branch agent Ken Barrett one month before he killed Pat Finucane.
“Barrett gave the guns to another Special Branch agent Billy Stobie.
“We now know Stobie’s handlers gave him back the weapons without making any effort to ensure they couldn’t be used in further attacks.
“We know that the rifle used in the attack was part of a consignment brought into Ireland by British army agent Brian Nelson specifically to rearm loyalism.
“This new evidence brings into question the whole issue of collusion in this case and why police decided to drop murder charges against notorious loyalist Raymond Elder without any explanation in 1992.
“This was despite him being identified as one of the gunmen by eyewitnesses and forensic evidence linking him to the getaway cars.”
Appealing for anyone with new information to come forward, Relatives for Justice spokesman Mark Thompson said:
“The families also make an impassioned plea to the conscience of members of the RUC, the CID, Special Branch, PSNI, HET, British Army, PPS, Forensic Science Laboratory and anyone within the intelligence agencies who know anything or who can shed more light on these killings and what went on behind the scenes to please come forward.
“The families also appeal to anyone from the loyalist community who has any information to please come forward.
“It’s their belief that it is now time for the truth to be told.”
In a statement from the PSNI they said:
“These murders have been subject to a review by HET which has been completed.”
GERRY MORIARTY
Irish Times
4 Feb 2012
“DISTURBING” NEW evidence has been found that should put pressure on the British and Irish governments to hold a cross-Border public inquiry into the Omagh bombing, according to relatives of the victims of the 1998 attack.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed in the bombing, told members of the House of Commons Northern Ireland affairs committee in Omagh yesterday that new details about the bombing have been uncovered.
Mr Gallagher said a London consultancy firm, whom the Omagh families had commissioned to carry out investigations on their behalf, had found new evidence that would support their calls for a public inquiry into the bombing.
Mr Gallagher said a report by the firm should be completed in time to be presented to the British, Irish and Spanish governments in March. The bombing claimed 29 lives, including a woman heavily pregnant with twins. Two of those who died were Spanish.
Mr Gallagher said he could give details, but “new and damaging evidence” would be coming out that would strengthen demands for an all-island public inquiry with an international dimension.
“We are in the process of discovering disturbing and significant information that would make it difficult for the governments not to grant an inquiry. But should they not grant us a public inquiry we will be prepared to go to the courts and challenge that decision.”
During the committee’s visit yesterday its chairman Laurence Robertson laid a wreath on behalf of the MPs at the bomb memorial site.
Tyrone Times
Friday 3 February 2012 10:21
**Via Newshound
A VETERAN Sinn Féin politician says the local community “demands the truth” about events leading up to the SAS ambush on a group of IRA volunteers at St Patrick’s Church in Clonoe two decades ago.
As the 20th anniversary of the attack – on February 16, 1992 – approaches, Mid-Ulster MLA, Francie Molloy, has recalled how he received a phone call alerting him to a shoot out and reports that the chapel was on fire.
Describing the SAS killings of Peter Clancy, Barry O’Donnell, Sean O’Farrell and Patrick Vincent as “terrible and tragic” for their families, Mr Molloy called for answers to questions surrounding the attack.
Molloy’s comments come as Coalisland Clonoe Martyrs Sinn Féin Cumann announced plans to hold a candlelight vigil at 9pm on Thursday, February 16 at Clonoe Chapel to remember the men.
The Mid-Ulster MLA recalled: “I remember getting the phone call a shoot out, the chapel on fire, men in boiler suits everywhere and no-one accountable. No-one knew what was happening.
“When I arrived at Clonoe the local people had taken a stand to ensure that no further damage could be done to the bodies of their loved ones. The air was tense and everyone was consumed (with) anguish on their faces but a determination that they were standing their ground.
“This was cold blooded murder, whatever had happened earlier the volunteers were packing up their weapons and were no threat to anyone.
“The stakeout had been planned by the SAS, RUC and they were there to murder as many as they could. This was premeditated murder yet there has never been a proper investigation and no-one has been held to account.
“The news shocked the entire community in the Coalisland and Clonoe area that these young men could be cut down in such a callous manner. Unionists gloated without realizing that this type of action showed the bankruptcy of the northern state which was brought into being by armed force and could only be maintained by force, murder and imprisonment.
“The murders at Clonoe also put an added responsibility on all of us to provide an alternative, to stop the ongoing slaughter of your volunteers in Tyrone and in this area of East Tyrone in particular.
“I knew these young men. They watched 10 men die on hungerstrike and saw the savagery of British occupation at first hand. Like the hungerstrikers they had no fear of the enemy and were prepared to take them on against the odds.
“Twenty years on from that terrible night this community demands the truth of what happened, who provided the information, who at the highest level of the NIO/British establishment ordered the murders and why after twenty years have their loved ones still got no answers?”
News Letter
Saturday 4 February 2012 07:02
THE limited life expectancy of a terminally-ill dissident republican convicted of murdering two British soldiers should not influence the length of his jail term, his defence lawyer has accepted.
Cystic fibrosis sufferer Brian Shivers, 46, was handed a life sentence last month after being found guilty of the murders of Sappers Patrick Azimkar, 21, and Mark Quinsey, 23, outside Massereene Army barracks in Antrim on March 7, 2009.
His lawyer, Pat O’Connor QC, told Belfast Crown Court his client had only four or five years to live.
But he acknowledged judge Justice Anthony Hart was duty bound to impose a minimum term that was much longer.
“There’s no allowance that my lord can make that can have any meaning in relation to a life expectancy that is so limited,” he said.
Justice Hart was hearing submissions before setting what tariff the killer will receive. He is due to give his decision next Friday.
Shivers, dressed in a grey jumper and jeans and sporting a beard, sat impassively in the dock as his lawyer told the court he faced spending the last years of his life behind bars.
“The life expectancy of Mr Shivers in the opinion of the most eminent expert in the field is four to five years,” said Mr O’Connor.
“This means effectively Mr Shivers will never see the outside of prison except for when he needs hospital treatment or the possibility of compassionate leave.”
The English soldiers from the 38 Engineer Regiment were about to begin a tour of duty in Afghanistan when they were gunned down in an attack by republicans opposed to the Good Friday Agreement.
Sapper Quinsey, from Birmingham, and Sapper Azimkar, from London, were dressed in their desert fatigues and were within hours of leaving the base.
They were collecting pizzas at the front gate when they came under fire.
Two other soldiers and two pizza delivery drivers were injured in the gun attack.
Shivers’ co-accused, high-profile republican Colin Duffy, 44, from Lurgan, was acquitted of the murder charges in the non-jury trial at Antrim Crown Court.
Mr O’Connor said Shivers, from Magherafelt, had been reassured by a letter from the Prison Service, outlining what treatment would be offered for his condition while he is in custody.
Prosecution lawyer Terence Mooney QC told the judge that a term at the higher end was appropriate, adding that there were many aggravating factors, including the fact that the murders were politically motivated acts of terrorism.
“The victims were vulnerable,” he added. “They were taken by surprise, they had no means of defence or escape.”
Mr Mooney said the sappers’ relatives and the survivors of the attack had submitted very personal victim impact statements to the judge, but he did not think it appropriate to detail their contents in open court.
Mr O’Connor said no-one could fail to be moved by the evidence.
DNA on matchsticks found in the partially burned-out Vauxhall Cavalier getaway car used in the ambush and abandoned eight miles away proved Shivers’ undoing at his trial.
Delivering his reserved judgment two weeks ago Justice Hart, who accused Shivers of inventing an alibi for his movements on the night of the attack, said he was satisfied that he had tried to set the car alight.
Yesterday, the judge acknowledged that the prosecution case claimed Shivers was a secondary party to the murders.
But he said that that would not have a significant influence on the length of term imposed.
“I think any allowance would be modest,” said the judge.
Relatives of Shivers and Duffy sat in the public gallery of Court 11 during the brief tariff hearing.
BBC
3 Feb 2012
Hollywood actor Martin Sheen has said he is proud of his uncle’s IRA past.
The father of screen actors Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez said he was also relieved to discover that his mother’s brother, Michael Fieland, from County Tipperary, had no part in the assassination of Irish republican leader Michael Collins.
Sheen, 71, found out about his family links to Ireland’s War of Independence while taking part in the US version of the hit genealogy television series Who Do You Think You Are?.
During the programme’s making, he visited Dublin’s Kilmainham Gaol and spent time in the cell where it is believed his uncle was imprisoned.
“I’m enormously proud of him,” he said.
“I would like to hope that if I had been here in Ireland at the time, I would have followed him and I would have been as committed as he was.”
Sheen is renowned for his roles in the films Apocalypse Now and Wall Street and the television series West Wing.
He said his uncle was an Irish volunteer who fought those who supported the Anglo-Irish treaty during the Civil War in the early 1920s.
“When I was in Ireland and discovering the involvement of my uncle in the Rising and the Civil War, I was afraid he might have been in on the plan to assassinate Mick Collins,” he added.
“But as it turned out he was in prison when Mick Collins was assassinated and I was deeply relieved.”
Sheen, whose real name is Ramon Estevez, was born to a Spanish father and Irish mother, Mary-Anne Fieland, from Borrisokane in County Tipperary.
She emigrated to the US during the Irish War of Independence, and he believes she was sent away to protect her from violence.
Sheen returned to his mother’s home country in 2006 when he took a place as a mature student at the National University of Ireland in Galway.
By Paul Higgins
Belfast Telegraph
Saturday, 4 February 2012
A one-time “enforcer” in the LVF, formerly charged with murdering a journalist, has been jailed for three years for his involvement in a catalogue of crimes.
Jailing 32-year-old Neil Hyde at Belfast Crown Court, Judge Patrick Lynch QC told him that had he not agreed to identify the alleged culprits in the murder of Sunday World investigative reporter Martin O’Hagan, and give evidence about the activities of the outlawed LVF, he would have jailed him for 18 years.
He told Hyde that having been recruited into the LVF in 1996, “by virtue of your size and propensity for violence, it appears that you were useful to the organisation as an enforcer and embarked on a career of sustained criminality over the next 15 years”.
Among the 48 charges which Hyde pleaded guilty to — having signed a contract under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act to get a massively reduced sentence in exchange for his testimony — are possessing handguns with intent to endanger life, withholding information about terrorist attacks, robbery, aggravated burglary and drug-running offences, all committed between January 1992 and January 2008.
Count 24, of conspiring with Drew King and others to possess a handgun on September 28, 2001, relates to the murder of 51-year-old journalist and father-of-two Mr O’Hagan, who was gunned down in front of his wife near his Lurgan home.
Outside the court, editor of the Sunday World and close friend of Mr O’Hagan, Jim McDowell, said the result was “a start”. “I want the police now to go and get the people, the real LVF killers and drug dealers who murdered my colleague,” he said.
By Michael Donnelly
Belfast Telegraph
Saturday, 4 February 2012
A 20-year-old Co Armagh man accused of the murder of Constable Stephen Carroll allegedly tried to collect information on another policeman for dissident republicans, his Belfast Crown Court trial has heard.
John Paul Wootton, of Collindale in Lurgan, along with 40-year-old former Sinn Fein councillor Brendan McConville, of Glenholme Avenue, Craigavon, denies the March 2009 murder.
Wootton is also accused of attempting to collect or record information useful to terrorists in the months before the shooting.
Constable Carroll was the first PSNI officer to be murdered when he was shot dead after terrorists lured police to the Lismore Manor estate in Craigavon on March 9, 2009.
Yesterday, videotaped interviews of two witnesses, identified only as ‘B’ and ‘E’, were played to the court in which they claimed Wootton tried to establish the address of a girl whose father was a serving police officer.
In the first of the police interviews, Witness E said Wootton had asked him straight out if he was going with a girl, whose father was a policeman.
He then allegedly asked for her address, which Witness E refused to divulge, telling him that |the man didn’t deserve to be shot because he was a policeman, to which Wootton allegedly replied: “A cop is a cop.”
Witness B, too, claimed Wootton had asked him if he knew of the girl’s address.
The trial continues.
SAOIRSE32 
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