Massereene witness interview bid
Defence lawyers for one of the men accused of murdering two soldiers at Massereene army barracks have resisted moves to have his partner’s interview notes admitted to the prosecution.
Lisa Leecock is a witness in the case against Brian Shivers, who denies the murder of Sappers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar, who were shot outside their army base in Antrim.
Colin Duffy is the co-accused.
Shivers’ barrister Patrick O’Connor QC told Antrim Crown Court on Monday that: “This is a completely novel and unsubstantiated limitation or overriding of an accepted principle and my friend (prosecution counsel Terence Mooney QC) does not have a legal leg to stand on.”
Sappers Quinsey, 23, and Azimkar, 21, were shot dead by the Real IRA as they collected pizzas with comrades outside Massereene army base in Antrim town in March 2009.
Duffy, 44, from Forest Glade in Lurgan, Co Armagh, and Shivers, 46, from Sperrin Mews, in Magherafelt, Co Londonderry, deny two charges of murder and the attempted murder of six others – three soldiers, two pizza delivery drivers and a security guard.
On 11 November 2011, Shivers’ legal team interviewed Ms Leecock, without any representative from the police or Public Prosecution Service (PPS) present.
Defence solicitor Niall Murphy told the court he had not received any fax or letter of objection from the PPS.
Prosecution service solicitor Michael Agnew insisted he had sent the notification after attending a retirement party earlier that month.
The prosecution is weighing up whether to call Ms Leecock as a witness.
Mr Mooney said: “This is an unusual situation. Never in my experience, which I hope I can say with some humility is not inconsiderable, has a (similar) situation (arisen) that I have ever heard of in this jurisdiction before.
“We respectfully say that in these circumstances the record of the interview ought to be disclosed.”
He said they would want to consider any matters which did not appear in any witness statement “so that in the interests of justice the appropriate weight would be given to those aspects of her evidence and a proper determination could be made by prosecutors as to whether or not to call the witness”.
Mr Justice Anthony Hart will deliver his ruling on Tuesday.
