AN IRA killer laughed at three life sentences for murder yesterday, confident he would be freed in little more than a year, despite a catalogue of crimes including killing the last soldier to die in Northern Ireland before the Good Friday Agreement.
Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick's mother said after the hearing that she thought justice had been done, but called for a re-think on the early release scheme because of the seriousness of the offences.
Bernard McGinn, 41, of Castleblayney, County Monaghan, refused to stand as he was sentenced at Belfast Crown Court for the murders during a 20-year reign of terror in South Armagh.
He was also jailed for a total of 490 years for a list of terrorist crimes, including making the bombs used in London at Canary Wharf, the Baltic Exchange, and Hammersmith Bridge.
Northern Ireland Lord Chief Justice Sir Robert Carswell, said McGinn had admitted to police that he made explosives north and south of the border on an almost daily basis ''like a day's work''.
However, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, terrorists convicted of crimes committed before the signing of the pact, last Easter, and members of an organisation maintaining a ceasefire, will be freed by July next year.
McGinn, although not the ''trigger man'', was convicted of murdering Lance Bombardier Restorick, who was shot by a sniper at a military checkpoint in the South Armagh village of Bessbrook, in 1997.
He also received life sentences for the murders of Lance Bombardier Paul Garrett, in Keady, County Armagh, in 1993, and former Ulster Defence Regiment soldier Thomas Johnston, who was shot dead in front of his girlfriend as they sat in a car in Keady, in 1978.
Soldiers Restorick and Garrett were victims of a feared IRA border sniper unit which made lethal, single shot attacks on the security forces using a powerful American-made Barrett Light 50 rifle.
McGinn and three co-accused, South Armagh men Michael Caraher, 31, from Cullyhanna, Martin Mines, 30, of Silverbridge, and James McArdle, 29, of Crossmaglen, were also each given 20 years for conspiracy to murder and 20 years for possession of weapons.
Caraher was sentenced to another 25 years for the attempted murder of RUC Constable Ronnie Galway, who was injured in a sniper attack in Forkhill, County Armagh, in 1997, and jailed for 20 years for the possession of the weapon used in that attack.
A fifth man, Mr Michael Anthony Kearns, 58, of Crossmaglen, was found not guilty of making a hay shed available to terrorists.
All the men were arrested when troops swooped on Kearns's farm in 1997, and uncovered a Barrett Light 50 and an AKM assault rifle hidden in a secret compartment in the bottom of a trailer.
The four defendants, all of whom refused to stand and recognise the court when sentenced, laughed and shouted to friends as they were led away handcuffed by prison officers.
Mrs Rita Restorick watched as they were convicted.
Outside Belfast Crown Court with husband John later, she said: ''I feel justice has been done.
''But, at the same time, we have the problem of early releases. They should be released in just over a year's time and I think, considering the seriousness of the crime, and also the fact that Bertie Ahern (the Irish Prime Minister) has said the murderers of a Garda will not be eligible for early release, I believe the same consideration should be given for this case.''
Mrs Restorick added: ''I think the evidence has shown these men have been active for a very long time.''
However, she said she would still support the early release scheme if paramilitaries started giving up their weapons.
''At the moment we, as victims' families, are being asked to give everything. We are seeing the people found guilty of our loved ones' murders walk free early and it's time the paramilitaries gave that little bit towards decommissioning. They have to make a move.''
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