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15/02/2007
Murder convictions quashed in court of appeal
Two republicans from Derry have had their convictions quashed, in Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal.
Raymond McCartney and Eamonn MacDermott were found guilty of murdering RUC officer Detective Constable Patrick McNulty in 1979.
Both men claimed they were brutalised in police custody, and denied any involvement in the murder.
McNulty was shot dead by the IRA on the Strand Road area of the city.
The judge commented: “In both cases we are left with a distinct feeling of unease about the safety of their convictions, based as they were on admissions. The convictions must therefore be quashed.”
During the 17 years Mr McCartney spent in prison, he became the IRA’s officer commanding in the Maze and also spent 53 days on hunger strike.
“This is vindication for all those who took to the streets and marched on behalf of prisoners at that particular time,” Mr McCartney commented, outside court.
“This has to be set in the context of RUC interrogation techniques in Strand Road and Castlereagh and it also highlights the willingness of Diplock courts to take confession-type statements and send republicans to jail.”
Mr MacDermott, who spent 15 years in prison, has worked for the Derry Journal for the past ten years.
(JM)
Raymond McCartney and Eamonn MacDermott were found guilty of murdering RUC officer Detective Constable Patrick McNulty in 1979.
Both men claimed they were brutalised in police custody, and denied any involvement in the murder.
McNulty was shot dead by the IRA on the Strand Road area of the city.
The judge commented: “In both cases we are left with a distinct feeling of unease about the safety of their convictions, based as they were on admissions. The convictions must therefore be quashed.”
During the 17 years Mr McCartney spent in prison, he became the IRA’s officer commanding in the Maze and also spent 53 days on hunger strike.
“This is vindication for all those who took to the streets and marched on behalf of prisoners at that particular time,” Mr McCartney commented, outside court.
“This has to be set in the context of RUC interrogation techniques in Strand Road and Castlereagh and it also highlights the willingness of Diplock courts to take confession-type statements and send republicans to jail.”
Mr MacDermott, who spent 15 years in prison, has worked for the Derry Journal for the past ten years.
(JM)
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