The Five Demands

Colpo di scena nel procedimento penale contro Colin Duffy per la strage del Real IRA alla base militare di Massereene il 7 marzo 2009

“Scomparse” le etichette che mostrano i dettagli di chi avuto contatti con la Vauxhall Cavalier verde presumibilmente utilizzata dai responsabili degli omicidi dei soldati Mark Quinsey and Patrick Cengiz Azimkhar, durante l’attentato alla base militare di Massereene avvenuto nella notte del 7 marzo di un anno fa.
Secondo l’avvocato della difesa Peter Corrigan, quanto accaduto è indice di come non fossero state seguite procedure standard durante il repertamento delle prove e di come tendenzialmente fosse stato tutto lasciato al caso.
Dal nulla spuntano anche 6 nuovi profili di DNA, uno dei quali corrisponderebbe ad un autista di polizia civile e sarebbe stato rilevato da un tampone sul freno a mano. Elemento alquanto contradditorio se si pensa che gli addetti alla raccolta degli elementi di prova sono tenuto usualmente ad indossare una tuta di plastica forense, stivali, cappuccio e maschera.
L’avvocato Carrigan l’ha quindi incalzato chiedendogli: “Ne consegue da quello che lei ha detto su tutte le precauzioni, che il suo DNA sulla leva del freno a mano sia arrivato lì innocentemente,  è corretto?”. L’autista ha risposto che si è trattato di un caso ed ha sottolineato di come non fosse”tenuto a conservare le informazioni in riferimento alle volte in cui era venuto in  contatto con il veicolo”, a meno che non fosse stato richiesto da chi aveva dato instruzioni di spostare l’auto.
E’ stato proprio grazie al ritrovamente del DNA dell’autista e all’impossibilità di risalire a quante volte fosse venuto in contatto con la Vauxhall Cavalier a portare alla luce la scomparsa di una qualsiasi documentazione che possa ora collegare Colin Duffy e Brian Shivers all’auto, data poi alle fiamme, che si crede fosse stata utilizzata dai dissidenti per allontanarsi dalla base armata di Massereene.

Al termine della 3° udienza preliminare il giudice ha dichiarato di voler riesaminare le prove prima di giungere ad una decisione.

Police ‘lose’ label for RIRA murder getaway car (BBC News Northern Ireland)
Murder-accused Colin Duffy Colin Duffy is charged with murdering the two young soldiers
Police investigating the Real IRA murders of two soldiers have lost a document that allegedly links two suspects with the gunmen’s getaway car.
A preliminary investigation into the murders of Sappers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Cengiz Azimkhar has heard that the exhibit label detailing who had contact with the green Vauxhall Cavalier vehicle has “gone missing”.
Defence solicitor Peter Corrigan suggested the loss of the label was “due to inadequate and haphazard records”.
He told Coleraine Magisrates’ Court that police had “no standard procedures in place” for dealing with exhibits and that it was all “hit and miss”.
Colin Francis Duffy, 42, from Forest Glebe in Lurgan, and Brian Patrick Shivers, 45, 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 Vauxhall car.
However it also emerged on Wednesday that DNA profiles from six other males, was also recovered from the car.
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.
The driver told the court 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’d been in contact with it.
Mr Corrigan asked: “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?”
The driver said he believed that was the case.
It was during the driver’s evidence that it emerged the exhibit label for the Vauxhall 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.