Duffy refused bail again
The credibility of the witness who is at the centre of the RUC
prosecution case against Lurgan man Collie Duffy (29), of
Drumnamoe Gardens was challenged at a Belfast High Court bail
hearing on 29 July.
The Lurgan man is charged with killing two RUC men in the town in
June, denies the charges, but was denied bail for the second time
in three weeks, despite the massive weight of alibi statements
given to the RUC in his defence.
The crown case against Duffy rests primarily on the witness
statement from a Lurgan woman, known as Witness D, now in RUC
custody. Described as an unreliable woman of ``limited and low
intellectual capacity'', her credibility has been severely
questioned.
The woman had accused her own father of abducting her child, when
in fact social services had placed it in care because of the
woman's drinking habits and neglect of the child and a member of
her family was prepared to testify on Tuesday to her
unreliability.
In contrast Duffy's defence rests on witnesses who will testify
that Duffy was near his home and nowhere near the scene of the
killings in Lurgan.
Both the Committee for the Administration of Justice and Duffy's
solicitor, Rosemary Nelson, criticised the RUC investigation for
failing to follow up the material supplied by Duffy's defence.
Nelson again emphasised that the RUC possess at least a dozen
alibi statements, and RUC video tape evidence which would confirm
events as relayed by witnesses who have stressed that Witness D
could not have been at the scene of the murders.
Duffy, a father of one, has already spent three and a half years
in prison for the murder of UDR member John Lyness in 1993 before
the appeal court overturned his conviction nine months ago
Meanwhile a pregnant woman who supplied a statement on Duffy's
behalf has criticised the RUC for ruining her holidays, and
causing her a great degree of shock when they followed her and
her family to Ayr. The woman made a statement to a solicitor in
which she placed Colin Duffy almost a mile away from the scene at
the time of the RUC deaths. The woman, expecting her third child
in August, was subjected to a tremendous strain, and has
described the rest of her stay as one where she felt like a
criminal, with other camp residents being fully aware of the
RUC's intimidating behaviour.
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