A FIREARMS expert told the Belfast trial of an RUC man accused of murdering his wife and two children that the shootings were "clinical and deliberate". However, he later appeared to draw back from this claim.
Constable John Torney (40) claims his 13 year old son, John, killed himself after shooting his mother, Linda, and sister, Emma, at their home in Lomond Heights, Cookstown, in September, 1994.
The firearms expert, who carried out tests to determine how the victims were shot, said all three were killed "where they lay" in bed. Mrs Torney had been shot at near point blank range, the gun just an inch from the back of her head.
Emma (10) had been shot within an inch or a couple of inches of the back of her head and her brother had been shot with the muzzle of the gun resting on his forehead.
Mr John Orr, prosecuting, asked the scientist about the bullet wounds and he replied: "In my opinion they would seem to be well placed shots. " When asked about the possible experience of the killer, he added: "Again it's only a personal opinion but one would get the impression that these were fairly clinical shots, fairly deliberate shots, not random shots."
Under cross examination by Mr Andrew Donaldson QC, he agreed that to fire the Ruger revolver "all you would have to do is to pick up that gun and fire it". He also agreed that if the revolver was already loaded, as are most police guns, a person did not need to know how to load or unload it.
The scientist admitted he had not worked out the precise angle of the bullet through Mrs Tomey's head. He had no photographs of how John Jnr was shot.
Mr Donaldson aimed the gun inches from a jug of water and pulled the trigger, saying it wouldn't "require any expertise or any skill to hit that jug". The witness agreed.
He was then challenged on the word "deliberate", which he had bused to describe the shootings, and about the "clinical shots". The scientist agreed that the shootings were "deliberate" in that someone had "deliberately" fired the shots.
Again aiming just inches from the jug, Mr Donaldson asked the expert if he would consider such a shot a "clinical shot".
"Possibly not," said the scientist.