The jail term given to Adrian Ismay’s terrorist killer is hardly a harsh one, but it is a step in right direction

Robinson, 50, was found to have played an “intimate” role in bombing Ismay’s van in 2016, which caused him injuries from which he later died.

The charge and conviction rate against dissident murderers has been poor since the Massereene Barracks killing of two soldiers in March 2009, Those murderers have not been caught, nor have the murderers of the PSNI officer Ronan Kerr and the prison officer David Black.

The murdering thugs who shot Stephen Carroll claim they have been the victims of a miscarriage of justice.

As Northern Ireland knows from the Troubles, it is hard to find evidence against skilled terrorists to convict them to the criminal standard of beyond all reasonable doubt.

Even if found guilty, many terror killers served 15 years or less. People convicted in the early 1970s were free long before the 1998 Belfast Agreement prisoner releases.

It is good that sentences for such terrorist murders are now higher. Mr Robinson will serve at least 22 years.

But that is still lenient for a carefully pre-planned killing, which should attract at least 40 years behind bars.

The News Letter has highlighted soft jail terms in sub murder dissident cases in NI, and in non terror cases. Today we report how one of Andrew Lorimer’s brutal killers has disgracefully escaped jail for a new offence.

But the conviction and sentence of Christopher Robinson is a step in the right direction.

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