Mr Colin Duffy has walked free yet again from a Northern Ireland courtroom after charges of murder against him were dropped. He spent more than three months on remand on this occasion. He was released from prison a year ago after a conviction of murder was quashed by the Court of Appeal.
Mr Duffy (29), who describes himself as a republican, said he was angry and frustrated. He had been charged with the murder of two community policemen, Constable John Graham and Reserve Constable David Johnston, in Lurgan, Co Armagh, in June.
Mr Duffy, who consistently denied the charges, is expected to take civil action for compensation, and says he will be going to the European courts and the United Nations for redress. He praised the Government, Mr Eamon O Cuiv TD, Minister of State, and Ms Patricia McKenna MEP for their support and called on the Government to raise the matter with the British government.
Yesterday, in front of around 20 supporters, Mr Duffy appeared at Lisburn Magistrates' Court where during a hearing which lasted less than a minute the Director of Public Prosecutions told the court there was "insufficient evidence" against the defendant. He was released and later returned home to his pregnant wife, Susan, and daughter, Catriona.
The main witness for the prosecution was known as Witness D. Her credibility had been called into question by the defence, and the witness's brother was willing to testify that she was unreliable. Mr Duffy's solicitor, Mrs Rosemary Nelson, told the court of her client's concern about the manner in which the investigation had been conducted.
She said she was furious that despite statements from 12 people, it took almost four months to establish that Witness D would not make a credible witness.
Last September Mr Duffy walked free from the Court of Appeal in Belfast after judges quashed his conviction for the murder of a retired UDR soldier, Mr John Lyness, who was shot dead by the IRA in June 1993. A witness in that case, Lindsay Robb, who was described as "credible" by the trial judge, was later convicted in Scotland of gunrunning for the UVF. He had been a member of the Progressive Unionist Party talks team.
Mr Duffy spent more than 3 1/2 years in prison on that occasion. He had been free for nine months when he was arrested last June for the murder of the two policemen. In 1990 he served two months on remand charged with possession of 10 bullets.
He and two co-accused were eventually granted bail, but one of the conditions was to appear regularly at Lurgan RUC station. On March 6th, 1990, as they left the station, they were attacked by loyalist gunmen. Mr Duffy and another man survived the attack but the third man, Mr Sam Marshall, was shot dead. The charges against the men were later dropped.
In 1991 Mr Duffy served 1 1/2 years on remand charged with collecting information likely to be of use to terrorists but was later acquitted.
Yesterday he said: "Once again I have been arrested, put in jail for something that I didn't do. Every one of us has a responsibility to highlight this case for what it really is, an indictment on the system as a whole, from the RUC right through to the courts. Until such times as this system has changed there isn't going to be any justice in this part of this country."
Calling for an independent inquiry, Mr Duffy said he was arrested because he was a republican. "That's all that's needed. You don't even need to be a republican. A nationalist will do. I was arrested without any real evidence. The case was then built around that. They had no evidence to begin with. A witness was manipulated, as far as I would be concerned, into saying that I was the person who did this."
The mother of one of the murdered policeman, Mrs Margaret Graham, told of her grief since her son John's death. "My life has been devastated. We will never get over it. I hope the government have the will and God will give them the courage and the strength to go after the people that did this ruthlessly and fulfil their duty to the law-abiding people so that nobody else has to suffer like this."