Killer challenges poppy appeal sticker evidence

Lawyers for Christopher Robinson, 51, challenged a finding that the label had been attached to the car which transported the device used to kill Adrian Ismay in March 2016.

They also claimed it was wrongly inferred that the sticker had been used in a cynical ploy to render the vehicle less conspicuous on its journey into east Belfast.

Defence barrister Arthur Harvey QC said: “The narrative was dictating the facts, not the facts dictating the narrative.”

Robinson is attempting to overturn his conviction for murdering Mr Ismay –[ who was known to him from their time volunteering together for St John Ambulance.

The victim, a 52-year-old father of three, suffered serious leg injuries when a bomb exploded under the van he was driving near his home at Hillsborough Drive.

Despite an apparent initial recovery, he died 11 days later.

Dissident republican grouping the New IRA claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.

Robinson, from Aspen Walk in Dunmurry, denied involvement in the killing or being an active member of the terrorist organisation.

But following a non-jury trial at Belfast Crown Court last year he was found guilty of murder and possessing explosives with intent to endanger life.

He was jailed for a minimum 22 years after the judge held that he had been “intimately and inextricably involved” in the plot.

A circumstantial case against him involved CCTV footage of a Citroen C3 car – registered in the name of a relative – which was used to transport the bomb.

Robinson’s DNA was found on the edge of a poppy appeal sticker recovered from a rubbish bin at the vehicle owner’s home.

In convicting him of Mr Ismay’s murder, the trial judge said he was convinced the label had been attached to the windscreen of the C3.

He described it as a cynical attempt to ensure the car would not appear out of place, and be less likely to be stopped and searched at a police checkpoint.

But Mr Harvey disputed the conclusions reached about the sticker.

“Is there any indication it was ever on the windscreen? The answer is no,” he said.

With poppy appeals normally held in the month of November, the three appeal judges were also told that using the label at another time of year would actually have attracted attention.

Counsel went on to stress that Robinon’s DNA could have been transferred without coming into contact with it.

He argued that a “false logic” developed that both his client and the appeal label had been in the car.

“The issue of the poppy sticker probably gained a prominence way beyond what it merited,” Mr Harvey contended.

“Once it gained that prominence, it had a distorting effect upon the approach to other evidence.”

The appeal continues.