Police lost RIRA getaway car label
Police investigating the Real IRA murders of two soldiers have lost documentation surrounding their biggest exhibit, the only evidence allegedly connecting two men to the killings, the gunmen’s getaway car.
The Coleraine Magisrates’ Court preliminary investigation into the murders heard the exhibit label detailing who had contact with the green Vauxhall Cavalier car, and where and when such contact was made, has “gone missing”.
Solicitor Peter Corrigan for 45-year-old Brian Patrick Shivers, who is charged with the murders along with prominent republican 42-year-old Colin Francis Duffy, suggested the loss of the exhibit label was “due to inadequate and haphazard records”
The Kevin Winters Solicitor further claimed the authorities had “no standard procedures in place” for dealing with exhibits and that it was all “hit and miss”.
Duffy, from Forest Glebe in Lurgan, and Shivers from Sperrin Mews, Magherafelt, are accused of the murders on the basis that their DNA profiles were allegedly found in and can be linked to the car.
However it also transpired on Wednesday that DNA profiles from six other males, in addition to those of Duffy and Shivers were also recovered from the Vauxhall.
Among those whose DNA profile was identified was that of a civilian police driver whose DNA was allegedly recovered from swabs taken from the hatchback’s hand brake.
Maintaining he was always dressed in full personal protection gear, consisting of a plastic forensic suit, over boots, hood and mask, when in contact with the car, he could not say how many times he had been in contact with it.
“It follows doesn’t it from what you have said about the precautions, that your DNA on the lever of the brake must have transferred there innocently, isn’t that correct?” asked Mr Corrigan.
“Yes that’s right, I believe so,” replied the driver.
It was the driver who also revealed that the exhibit label for the Vauxhall car has gone missing and therefore he could not say how many times and when he was in contact with the getaway car.
He said he was “not required to keep information with reference to how many times I had been in contact with the vehicle”.
The driver further explained that he did not always sign the exhibit label when he was in contact with the car, “unless instructed to by whoever asked me to move the vehicle”.
Asked by Mr Corrigan was it not a case of no standard practice being in place for dealing with exhibit labels and that the whole thing was “a hit and miss”, the witness replied he could only state what he had said before.
“As I have already stated I was not privy to the policies made by the police service in relation to exhibit labels,” said the witness.
Earlier at the start of the third day of proceeding, defence lawyer Mark Mulholland again claimed that Duffy had been “assaulted, sexually assaulted, physically assaulted and has several injuries at this stage”.
However, he accepted that the court has “limited powers” in these matters and that “if Mr Duffy has any complaint, he should bring it to the proper authorities”.
It is hoped that the inquiry into the murders of Sappers Mark Quinsey, 23, and 21-year-old Patrick Cengiz Azimkhar outside Massereene army base on 7 March 2009, will conclude on Thursday.
