'˜Germany can jail IRA men '“ so we should follow suit'

Ex-soldier Doug Beattie was reacting to the four-year sentence handed down to James Anthony Oliver Corry over a 1996 mortar attack on a UK military barracks in Germany, which did not cause any fatailities.

Mr Beattie, UUP MLA for Upper Bann, knows the barracks from first-hand experience, and said the attack had posed a serious danger to surrounding civilian homes.

He described himself “staggered” and “astounded” by the “scandalous” sentence, but congratulated the German government on having at least persevered in pursuing justice through the courts.

He added that it should stand as an example to the UK state, adding that “any government where the IRA operated and killed or wounded or attempted to murder should track these people down ... I’d ask for the British government to stop being so weak and do similar”.

For example he cited the recent case of Dublin-based lawyer and self-confessed IRA man Kieran Conway, who has openly spoken of taking part in shootings and bombings – admissions which appeared to prompt very little action from UK or Irish justice authorities.

It emerged on Wednesday that Corry, aged 48, had been sentenced to four years in prison for attempted murder for his role in the attack against Quebec Barracks on the Osnabrueck base on June 28, 1996.

He had been arrested in Co Kerry in October 2015 on the basis of an 11-year-old European Arrest Warrant, and was then extradited to Germany last December.

He admitted his role in the attack on the first day of his trial this July.

According to a statement presented to the court, Corry drove a rented Ford Transit pick-up truck to a side entrance at 6.15pm, and set a timing device to fire three mortars after 35 minutes.

Two failed to go off, but the third exploded near a petrol station in the base. No-one was hurt.

The BBC reported on Wednesday night that one year of his sentence will be waived “because of an unlawful procedural delay”, whilst The Guardian reported that he had “refused to name his accomplices”.

Doug Beattie, UUP MLA and decorated former soldier, knows the base in north-west Germany Osnabrueck base personally.

It stands to the west of a town called Lemgo, where he was based from 1989 to 1993. At that time, both bases were home to Royal Irish Rangers.

He said the Osnabrueck base “is surrounded by residential areas”, adding: “These mortars are inaccurate – it could have overshot the barracks, it could have landed in residential areas, it could have resulted in mass murder.

“And I am absolutely astounded – astounded! – that the German government have not given him a sentence which reflects the crime he committed.”

He wondered if the court had selected the sentence on the basis that, if he were convicted of a similar crime in Northern Ireland, he would be jailed for just two years.

However, Mr Beattie also said: “The fact is that they pursued this man. They got him extradited.

“Yes, it’s a pitiful sentence. But I take solace in the fact that this man was put behind bars and justice was served.”

He contrasted this with a number of recent cases in which republicans have either admitted or are suspected of serious paramilitary activity on UK soil.

These included Kieran Conway, who wrote a book in 2014 about his time in the IRA and then gave a long interview last year in which he admitted being involved in about six bombings and about six fatal shootings of soldiers.

Although UK and Irish authorities have been pressed about what they are doing about Conway, earlier this year the PSNI had merely said it was “examining everything that has been said by Mr Conway”, and no evidence of action aimed at bringing him to justice has publicly emerged.

“The point that I’m making is these people need to be chased down,” said Mr Beattie.

“If they need to be extradited, they need to be extradited. They have to stand trial.

“I think we in the UK should take [the] example of the Germans... they pursued somebody who committed a crime on their territory and they’ve now got him behind bars.

“The British government should do exactly the same, be that anybody who’s in the Irish Republic, anybody who’s in the US, or anywhere else in the world.”

The attack came slightly more than months after the IRA had ended its ceasefire, in place since 1994.

It had been preceded by the Canary Wharf and Manchester bombs.

A defence lawyer told the German court this summer Corry gave up his involvement with the IRA after the attack.

A number of media reports state that Corry had been an actor.

A report from the Mail on Sunday in August 1996 said Irish, UK and German police were hunting him over the Germany attack just weeks after he appeared as an RUC officer in BBC drama ‘The Precious Blood’ (also featuring Ulster actor Jimmy Ellis).

The British Film Institute lists his last performance being in the 2001 film ‘When Brendan Met Trudy’, in which he played a prison officer.

Sinn Fein was asked to comment on the case, and about whether Corry was a past or present party member.

It did not respond.