Court to review SF man's murder conviction

A Sinn Féin Assembly member is to have his conviction for the murder of a policeman reviewed by the Court of Appeal, it emerged today.

Raymond McCartney, a former head of the IRA in the Maze Prison and now an MLA for Foyle, and fellow Derry man Eamon McDermott were convicted of the murder of off- duty Detective Constable Patrick McNulty in January 1977.

They denied involvement in the murder and four years ago referred their case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, claiming they were brutalised in police custody and confessions were fabricated.

The Commission concluded that evidence of ill-treatment of other terrorist suspects had not been presented to the trial judge and that may have had an effect on the credibility of the police officers involved.

Mr McCartney spent 17 years in prison and also came to prominence in the first IRA hunger strike in 1980 when he fasted for 53 days.

Mr McDermott spent 15 years behind bars and has been a journalist at the Derry Journal for 10 years.

Mr McCartney was also convicted of the murder of English businessman Jeffrey Agate in Derry a week after Mr McNulty was gunned down at a garage in Strand Road where he had left his Ford Escort car for servicing.

Mr Agate, managing director of the local Du Pont and the vice chairman of the Northern Ireland branch of the CBI, was shot dead as he arrived home from work by IRA gunmen in Talbot Park.

Mr McCartney has played a key role in Sinn Féin’s peace process strategy and in May 2004 took over from Mary Nelis as one of the party’s two Assembly members in Foyle.