A BELFAST man was jailed for life for murder yesterday after being convicted by his DNA profile in one of the first cases of its type in Northern Ireland.
Robert Duffy (24), of Ligoniel Road, was convicted at the Crown Court of the murder of a company director, Mr John Gibson, who was shot down in the driveway of his home at C Road, Carnmoney, on October 21st, 1993.
The killing was later claimed by the IRA. A trail of blood, not from the victim, led from the back of the house to the road where a car had been seen parked before the shooting. This vehicle had been hijacked earlier the same day, and after the murder was found abandoned in a car park.
Samples of blood from the scene and from the inside of the car were compared with mouth swabs taken from Duffy after his arrest in November, 1993. During the trial Mr Justice Higgins heard the DNA samples obtained matched both visually and on computer.
The court also heard that the chance of a person in the United Kingdom with the same DNA profile was one in nearly six thousand million. At the time of his arrest Duffy was found to have an injury to his hand.
In a reserved judgment Mr Justice Higgins said this had been a well planned and co-ordinated incident commencing with the taking of the car by men who claimed to be members of the IRA.
"I am satisfied two gunmen lay in wait at the rear of the premises and that Mr Gibson was fired upon by both gunmen in a premeditated murder attack. I am also satisfied one of the gunmen was injured at the rear of the house, possibly by a fragment of bullet, and was bleeding from a free flowing exposed wound leaving a trail of blood".
The judge said the blood recovered from the car corresponded with the defendant's two blood grouping systems, and his DNA profile from the swabs matched that found at the murder scene and from the car.
Mr Justice Higgins said he considered the evidence pointed overwhelmingly to the conclusion that Duffy was the injured gunman.
"This was an elaborate and well planned attack, a cowardly and wicked act for which, like every other murder committed in this province in recent years, there can be no justification," he went on. Duffy was jailed for life, and was also given a 25 year term for possession of the murder weapons.