Killer cleared of explosives charge

As McConville sat impassive in the dock at Belfast Crown Court sporting a full beard, as per the ongoing dissident republican dispute with the prison service, prosecuting QC Terence Mooney told the judge Mr Justice Horner he had been instructed to offer no evidence against him.

The former Sinn Fein councillor was due to go on trial accused of having explosives with intent to endanger life and under suspicious circumstances on dates between October 11, 2006 and October 11, 2007.

No details to the background of the case were opened in court on Monday but the indictment alleges that 41-year-old McConville had explosive substances namely firework fuse, filler plugs, firework composition, pieces of shotgun cartridges, plastic conduit assemblies, springs and pegs.

Mr Mooney did open to the court, however, that in preparation for the case last Thursday, the Forensic Science Agency 'brought to the attention of the PPS new information which had a bearing on one aspect of the forensic evidence that we intended to present in court'.

He told Mr Justice Horner on foot of that new information, he had been asked to look again at the papers and having done so, 'I formed the opinion that the test for prosecution was no longer met'.

'I'm therefore instructed by the director of the PPS to offer no evidence on this indictment against this accused,' said the lawyer with defence QC Brendan Kelly inviting the judge to enter verdicts of not guilty on each of the four counts.

Although Mr Justice Horner told McConville he was finding him not guilty of the explosives charges, he was taken back into custody as he is currently serving a minimum life sentence of 25 years for the murder of Constable Stephen Carroll.

Gunned down by the Continuity IRA in March 2009 after he answered an emergency call-out in Craigavon, 48-year-old Const Carroll, from Banbridge, was the first policeman killed by republican terrorists since the peace process reforms which saw the RUC replaced by the PSNI.

Speaking when he jailed McConville, of Aldervale, Tullygally in Craigavon, for at least 25 years and John Paul Wootton (21) of Collingdale, Lurgan, for at least 14 years last May, Lord Justice Girvan said: 'The killing comes at a time when terrorist activity has thankfully substantially decreased and it has been wholly rejected, as demonstrated by the will of the people.

'Any terrorist who continues to activate that terrorism at this point in time must be deterred from continuing in that course and any sentence must reflect that need for deterrence.'

Const Carroll was shot dead two days after two British soldiers were murdered in a Real IRA gun attack outside their barracks in Antrim town.

He died of a single gunshot wound to the head as he sat in an unmarked police car while colleagues attended a 999 call in the Lismore Manor area.

A brick was thrown through the window of a house in the private development an hour earlier, prompting the occupants to call the police.

The gun used in the attack, an AK47 assault rifle, was found hidden beneath an oil tank, wrapped in a black bin bag and clingfilm, in the garden of a house not far from where the officer was murdered.

A coat belonging to McConville, which was recovered in the boot of a Citroen Saxo, may have been wrapped around the gun when the shots were fired.