‘Disgusted’ widow hits out at jail term for Pc’s killer

John Paul Wootton, 21, drove the getaway car and was sentenced to a 14-year minimum term by Lord Justice Paul Girvan, nine fewer than the man whose coat may have been wrapped around the murder weapon, Brendan McConville, 41.

The policeman, 48, was shot dead by the Continuity IRA in Craigavon, County Armagh, in March 2009.

Outside Belfast Crown Court Cons Carroll’s widow Kate said of Wootton’s sentence: “I am actually disgusted, the full intent was there, he has shown no remorse.”

She added: “It gives the message out that it is fine to kill a policeman here because you get a small rap on the knuckles whereas in England you get the full term.

“Justice has been done? Not for us it has not. Stephen is still in his grave.”

In England a possible minimum sentence of 30 years can be handed to those who kill policemen.

Mrs Carrol branded the sentence disgusting.

The judge said there must be some allowance for the fact that Wootton, 17 at the time, played a more limited role than McConville.

He said: “Any terrorist who continues to activate that terrorism at this point in time must be deterred from continuing in that course and any sentence must reflect that need for deterrence.”

Lord Justice Girvan added: “No person with any sense of humanity or compassion could fail to be moved by seeing or reading of the devastation visited because self-appointed executioners decided that they are entitled to sacrifice a life in furtherance of terrorist goals roundly rejected by right-thinking members of society.”

A victim impact statement from Mrs Carroll said: “I feel that I have not only had my soul mate, best friend and future taken away from me, but I did not even get a chance to say goodbye properly.

“Stephen was my life and religion and losing him was heartbreaking, gut-wrenching.”

Pc Carroll, from Banbridge, County Down, was the first policeman killed by republican terrorists since the peace process reforms which saw the Royal Ulster Constabulary replaced by the new-look Police Service of Northern Ireland.

McConville, of Aldervale, Tullygally in Craigavon, showed no emotion as the sentence was set.

Wootton, of Collingdale, Lurgan, County Armagh, was also convicted of collecting information for the use of terrorism, after trying to obtain the address of another policeman.

His mother Sharon Wootton, was handed a 12-month suspended sentence for removing computers used by her son.