A getaway car used by the killers of two British soldiers was later contaminated with the DNA of the police’s vehicle recovery driver, a court has heard.
Traces of Robert Greer’s DNA were found on the handbrake of the Vauxhall Cavalier used in the dissident republican gun attack in which English soldiers Mark Quinsey (23) and Patrick Azimkar (21) were murdered, Antrim Crown Court was told.
Judge Mr Justice Anthony Hart heard that Mr Greer had also been interviewed under police caution on suspicion of making false police statements after he claimed he had never been inside the car before the date the DNA was found.
Soldiers Quinsey and Azimkar were shot dead by the Real IRA as they collected pizzas with comrades outside Massereene Army base in Antrim town in March 2009.
Colin Duffy (43) from Forest Glade in Lurgan, Co Armagh, and Brian Shivers (46) from Sperrin Mews in Magherafelt, Co Derry, deny two charges of murder and the attempted murder of six others - three soldiers, two pizza delivery drivers and a security guard.
The fifth day of their trial also heard seemingly conflicting evidence on exactly when and how a latex glove tip, which allegedly links Duffy to the shootings, was found in the abandoned, partially burnt-out getaway car.
As Mr Duffy and Mr Shivers looked on from the dock, one forensic officer revealed that he made his first official statement that he had seen the tip only yesterday.
The revelation brought gasps and stifled laughter from the defendants’ supporters.
Later Mr Greer, a former vehicle recovery operator for the Police Service of Northern Ireland, told the trial how he had been called to the Ranaghan Road, a few miles from the barracks, where the car had been ditched by the gunmen.
His task was to load it on to a trailer and drive it to a secure police forensic inspection garage in Derry.
The court heard that four months after the shooting he made a statement to police claiming that at no time had he entered the vehicle while performing this job, instead lifting the car with a winch.
But under cross-examination by Shiver’s QC Patrick O’Connor, it emerged that he had been interviewed under caution in January 2010 about allegedly making false statements.
Mr Greer explained he subsequently remembered that he had been in the vehicle - on arrival in Derry when he received a call to look for the car’s missing exhibit label.
“I originally didn’t recall being in it,” he said.
“But then I did remember I had been in the vehicle to look for an exhibits label for the car which had apparently been misplaced.” He said he had searched around the front of the vehicle and in between the seats.
Insisting he was dressed in full forensic protective gear, he suggested his DNA may have got on the handbrake when his overalls and glove were stretched apart as he was reaching down between the seats.
But the court was then told that a senior forensic scientist who was managing the scene at Ranaghan Road, Rachel Deane, had noted in her log that Mr Greer had entered the car before leaving for Derry to see if it would start.
She recorded in her book that the vehicle had started. Mr Greer said he had no memory of that happening, though he did stress that he was wearing forensic protection at Ranaghan Road as well.
Mr O’Connor was sceptical of the witness’s explanation that the DNA got on the handbrake while searching for a label.
“I suggest this all very vague and unlikely,” he said.
The lawyer said the version of events as described by Ms Deane was more logical - and that he had contact with the handbrake while trying to start the car on the Ranaghan Road.
Justice Hart then asked Mr Greer about Ms Deane’s note.
“I’m not saying it didn’t happen, I’m saying I don’t remember doing that,” he replied.
PA