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DNA was planted, says man cleared of N.Ireland shootings

22 January 2012 00:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A man cleared of shooting dead two British soldiers in Northern Ireland claimed on Saturday that his DNA was planted in the getaway car used in the attack, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.

Colin Duffy, 44, said the charges against him were "spurious" and insisted he played no role in the murders of the soldiers as they collected a pizza delivery outside Massereene barracks in Antrim in March 2009.

His co-accused Brian Shivers, 46, was convicted on Friday of killing the two soldiers in an attack blamed on the dissident republican group, the Real IRA.

Duffy, still sporting the shaggy beard he grew while awaiting trial, told a press conference: "I am firmly of the view that my DNA arose there because it was planted. I was never in that car.

"I state quite categorically here that I had no involvement in what happened at Massereene, no involvement whatsoever, and that has been vindicated in court because there was no credible evidence to suggest otherwise."

Judge Anthony Hart told Antrim Crown Court that although the prosecution had proved Duffy’s DNA was on a latex glove inside the car used in the attack and on a seat buckle in the vehicle, it had failed to link him to the murder plot.

It is the third time in the past 20 years that Duffy has walked free after being charged with murdering members of the security forces.

Two days after the soldiers were killed, a policeman was shot dead.

The murders briefly sparked fears of a return to the sectarian violence which plagued Northern Ireland for three decades until it was largely ended by peace accords struck in 1998.