Terminally ill killer Brian Shivers will die behind prison bars - Belfast Telegraph

By David Young
Saturday, 21 January 2012

A terminally-ill dissident republican will spend his final years in prison after being convicted of murdering two British soldiers.

Cystic fibrosis sufferer Brian Shivers (46) was handed a life sentence after a judge found him guilty of being part of the gang that gunned down Sappers Patrick Azimkar (21) and Mark Quinsey (23) outside Massereene Army barracks in Antrim on March 7, 2009.

Just months before unemployed divorcee Shivers, from Magherafelt, Co Londonderry, took part in the killings, a doctor told him he had only three or four years to live.

The court fell completely silent when Justice Hart delivered the guilty verdict for Shivers at the conclusion of what was a three-hour judgment.

Shivers was charged with two counts of murder, six counts of attempted murder and a further count of possessing two machine-guns.

DNA on matchsticks found in the partially burned-out Vauxhall Cavalier getaway car used in the ambush and abandoned eight miles away proved his undoing.

Justice Hart, who accused him of inventing an alibi for his movements on the night of the attack, said he was satisfied he had tried to set the car alight.

Before a silent courtroom, Shivers rose to his feet in the dock as Justice Hart, sitting in his last trial before retiring, passed sentence.

"There is only one penalty that I can impose upon you," he said.

"And that is one of life imprisonment, which I now do. I now sentence you to life imprisonment."

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