Carroll Trial: le pene minime per Brendan McConville e John Paul Wootton

Lengthy jail terms for Carroll’s killers

Two men have been jailed for the murder of Constable Stephen Carroll, who was shot dead in an ambush in Craigavon three years ago – Brendan McConville for 25 years and John Paul Wootton for 14 years.

Former Sinn Féin councillor McConville and 21-year-old Wootton were found guilty back in March, despite protesting their innocence throughout a nine-week trial at Belfast Crown Court.

The pair were automatically handed life sentences, but found out on Monday the minimum time they’ll have to spend behind bars.

The defendants made no reaction as Lord Justice Paul Girvan passed sentence on them.

The judge described McConville and Wootton as “self-appointed executioners” rejected by society.

“No person with any sense of humanity or compassion could fail to be moved by seeing or reading of the devastation visited because self-appointed executioners decided that they are entitled to sacrifice a life, in furtherance of terrorist goals roundly rejected by right-thinking members of society,” he said.

Constable Carroll had been just two hours from the end of his shift, when he and some of his colleagues were lured to the Lismore Manor area of Craigavon.

Those behind the plot ensured police would be drawn into the estate by breaking the window of a house, prompting the unsuspecting residents to call 999.

The 48-year-old was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head, from an AK-47 assault rifle.

He was the first PSNI member to be killed by dissident republicans since the force replaced the Royal Ulster Constabulary and his death came just two days after the fatal gun attack on Massereene Army barracks.

Earlier on Monday, a prosecution QC had told the court that, while the case regarding Wootton – who was just 17 at the time of the killing – was different as he was a young person, there were no mitigating factors regarding McConville.

Constable Carroll’s widow Kate said she was “disgusted” by the lesser sentence handed to Wootton, as she didn’t believe it would serve as a deterrent.

She also hit out at the differences between Northern Ireland and England when it comes to sentencing – in England, someone who kills a police officer can face 30 years in prison.

“It should be the same everywhere – you can’t make exceptions in one country. It’s disgusting,” Kate said.

“It gives the message out that it’s fine to kill a policeman here, because you get a rap on the knuckles. Justice has been done? Not for us it hasn’t. Stephen is still in his grave.”

Wootton’s mother Sharon was also handed a 12-month jail term, but it was suspended for three years.

She had pleaded guilty during the trial to obstructing the police investigation into Constable Carroll’s murder, by removing computer equipment from the home where she and her son both lived ahead of searches.