Carroll gunman ‘fired AK47 from 50 metres’
THE bullet which killed Constable Stephen Carroll almost instantly was one of two shots fired at him as he sat in the driver’s seat of his police car after he and other officers were lured to the scene at Lismore Manor in Craigavon in March 2009, a court heard yesterday.
The Belfast Crown Court trial of a former Sinn Fein councillor and a mother and son facing charges arising out of the murder also heard that the gunman, armed with a suspected Romanian AK47 assault rifle, using ammunition manufactured in Yugoslavia in 1982, had fired from approximately 50 metres.
A forensic scientist also claimed the gunman had fired the two shots, suggesting the rifle was on semi-automatic mode when fired from a footpath between a lamppost and the corner of the closest building, which was under construction at the time.
The court has already heard that the assault rifle and a magazine containing 24 rounds of ammunition were found in a follow-up search hidden under an oil tank at the rear of a house in the nearby Pineview estate.
The forensic doctor said that the rifle, capable of firing up to 10 rounds a second, had a Romanian-type foregrip fitted under the barrel, and while serial numbers had been ground off from two sections, a third set of numbers was noted inside.
The doctor said when test fired the weapon ejected bullets to the right and slightly forward of the firing position, something which he later used to “back extrapolate” to ascertain the location of the gunmen when he opened fire.
The expert added that from the gunman’s estimated position, the bullets had also been fired through two sets of metal mesh fencing between him and Constable Carroll’s car.
Later, under cross-examination by defence QC Brendan Kelly, the doctor agreed that if any of the bullets had struck the chain-linked fencing it “could have deflected the flight of the bullet”.
However, the expert said he had examined the fencing and found no damage and, in his opinion, “the bullet had passed through the fencing”.
Earlier, he also accepted that because he had found brown-coloured debris in the rifle barrel, similar to dirt, soil or rust, this too could have affected the path of bullets.
The doctor said that while he would have expected the exit speed of any bullet to be slowed by the debris, he could not rule out the possibility it would have affected the accuracy of the weapon.
Although the case only opened on Monday, trial judge Lord Justice Girvan has already heard the evidence of over 100 witnesses, either directly from the witness box or read to him by agreement of counsel.
However, because of further legal matters to be dealt with by another judge, the Diplock non-jury trial has been adjourned until at least Thursday of next week.
In the meantime, 40-year-old former Sinn Fein councillor Brendan McConville, of Glenholme Avenue, Craigavon and 20-year-old John Paul Wootton, of Collindale in Lurgan, who both deny Constable Carroll’s murder, have been remanded back into custody.
Wootton’s 48-year-old mother Sharon, of the same address, has been released on continuing bail. She denies perverting justice by removing a computer from her home following the shooting, just two days after two soldiers were gunned down outside Massereene Army barracks in Antrim.
