Maguire may face evidence questions

MS Donna Maguire may face a courtroom examination about her evidence in a compensation case which led to her being awarded £13…

MS Donna Maguire may face a courtroom examination about her evidence in a compensation case which led to her being awarded £13,500.

Ms Maguire (30), from John Martin Gardens, Newry, Co Down, was convicted in June 1995 of bombing a British army base at Osnabruck, Germany, in 1989.

She was awarded the money last January after she told a High Court judge in Belfast that she injured her ankle when she tripped on a broken paving stone.

The Department of the Environment is appealing the award. Its lawyer asked the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal yesterday to admit new evidence.

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Ms Maguire had claimed she fell in Patrick Street, Newry, in June 1985 after leaving Daisy Hill hospital with her aunt, Mrs Mallon, whose child was ill.

The department's lawyer told the court yesterday there was no trace of a Mallon child in the hospital's records for June 1985. However, there was a record of a Mallon child having attended the casualty unit in April 1995.

Ms Maguire was in custody in Germany for six years before being convicted of the army base bombing. She was sentenced to nine years imprisonment but was immediately released because of the time she had been in custody.

Yesterday her lawyer Mr Alan Comerton QC objected to the application to admit new evidence. He said evidence about a hospital visit was not relevant to whether Ms Maguire fell as she had stated in court.

Judgment was reserved.