Top republican free as co-accused faces death in jail

A HIGH-PROFILE republican has walked free from a court in the North after being cleared of murdering two British soldiers.

However, his co-accused, a terminally ill dissident republican, will spend his final years in prison after being convicted.

Cystic fibrosis sufferer Brian Shivers, aged 46, was handed a life sentence after a judge found him guilty of being part of the gang that gunned down Patrick Azimkar, aged 21 and Mark Quinsey, aged 23, outside Massereene army barracks in Co Antrim in March 2009 as they collected pizza.