Irish Republican News · January 9, 2004

Killer soldier loses appeal

A former British soldier with the UDR regiment jailed for murder lost an appeal against his conviction in a Belfast Court today.

Neil Latimer cursed the judges after they upheld his conviction for the murder of Adrian Carroll in Armagh city 20 years ago. Latimer has served 14 years of his life sentence.

He was lead away from the Appeal Court today shouting: ``Why do you think I went through all of this? There is no justice.''

Latimer was released from prison under licence in 1998 after being convicted of ambushing and shooting Mr Carroll three times as he walked home from work on November 1983.

Latimer was one of four soldiers in the Ulster Defence Regiment jailed for the murder in July 1986, but the other three were later freed on appeal.

His case against conviction centred on the reliability of evidence from a woman who allegedly saw him near the scene of the shooting. Latimer also retracted a confession to the police, claiming they were made under duress.

This was the third time that Latimer appealed the conviction. However, the court said it was satisfied the conviction was safe.

His appeal was primarily based on a confession statement which he later retracted and the reliability of evidence given by a witness who seen him near the murder scene in 1983. The judges said that Latimer's real motive for changing his story during the interviews was to ``shield his colleagues,'' after police officers had put to him that other UDR members were involved.

``We have reached the conclusion that the course of the interviews points strongly to the appellant's confessions being reliable and true,'' the judges said.

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