A terminally-ill dissident republican will spend his final years in prison after being convicted of murdering two British soldiers in Northern Ireland.
Cystic fibrosis sufferer Brian Shivers, 46, was handed a life sentence after a judge found him guilty of being part of the gang that gunned down Sappers Patrick Azimkar, 21 and Mark Quinsey, 23, outside Massereene Army barracks in Antrim on March 7 2009.
Just months before unemployed divorcee Mr Shivers, from Magherafelt, Co Londonderry, took part in the killings, a doctor told him he had only three or four years to live.
His co-accused, high-profile republican Colin Duffy, from Lurgan, Co Armagh, was acquitted of the charges in the non-jury trial at Antrim Crown Court by Mr Justice Anthony Hart. It was the third time in the last two decades that 44-year-old Duffy has walked free after being charged with murdering security-force members.
Earlier, relatives of the two sappers wept openly in court as he was acquitted. But the room fell completely silent an hour later when Justice Hart delivered the guilty verdict for Mr Shivers at the conclusion of what was a three-hour judgement.
After the verdicts, Sapper Quinsey’ssister Jaime said they had got a measure of justice.
“Mark and Patrick were murdered as a result of a vicious cowardly act. They were unarmed and prepa-ring to go to serve their country in Afghanistan.” Sappers Azimkar’s mother Geraldine added, “After nearly three years of heartache we have come a little bit closer to justice.” “This was a terrible crime which stole Patrick and Mark’s young lives from them. Losing Patrick has devastated our family and has forever cast a dark shadow over our lives.”
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 peace deal of 1998.
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.