Lawyer accepts no leniency for terminally-ill Massereene killer

The limited life expectancy of a terminally-ill dissident republican convicted of murdering two British soldiers should not influence the length of his jail term, his defence lawyer has accepted.

Brian Shivers (aged 46), who suffers from cystic fibrosis, was handed a life sentence last month after being found guilty of the murders of Sappers Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, and Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, outside Massereene Army barracks in Antrim on March 7 2009.