A POLICEMAN left wheelchair-bound after being shot by his former girlfriend criticised her 12-year sentence yesterday.
Sgt Laurence Smyth (42) who suffered serious spinal injuries in the attack inside a police station in Newtonabbey, Northern Ireland, said while Diane Northcott would probably be free within six years, he had to live with his disability for life.
"I think 12 years is far too light," said the father of one. She'll do half of that and in six years' time she'll walk out while I'll still be in this wheelchair."
Police reservist Northcott (41) was sentenced at Belfast Crown Court yesterday after pleading guilty to the attempted murder of Sgt Smyth in September 2006.
The part-time officer in the PSNI shot her colleague in the thigh and neck after confronting him when he ended their two-year relationship.
Justice Tony Hart said the sentence of 12 years was at the upper end of the scale for the crime.
"Of particular significance is the catastrophic nature of the injuries she has inflicted upon Sergeant Smyth, and the extremely grave disability from which he will suffer for the rest of his life," said the judge.
"This requires a sentence at the upper end of the appropriate scale for cases of attempted murder."
The officer, who intends to return to work with the PSNI in a desk job capacity, said he had no feelings towards his former lover."She did say sorry as she passed me when she pleaded guilty but she hasn't looked at me in the court since then," he said.
In court, Justice Hart said it was clear that the mother-of-one had become obsessed with her colleague and his decision to end their affair had motivated her attempt to kill him.
The judge acknowledged that the defendant was suffering from severe depression and alcohol dependency at the time of the shooting but he rejected a claim that she had a psychiatric condition.
The defence had argued that Northcott had intended to kill herself in front of Sgt Smyth and that she could not explain why she had instead turned the gun on her ex-partner.
Justice Hart said this did not influence his decision.
"Given that she had taken the gun from her locker, checked to see if was loaded, pointed the gun at him in the recreation room [ of the police station] and shot him in the upper thigh, followed him and fired a second shot which hit him in the back and exited from the right neck/shoulder area, the evidence that she intended to kill him was overwhelming."
He added: "Had the defendant been convicted after a plea of not guilty, I consider that the appropriate sentence would have been one of 16 years' imprisonment in view of the catastrophic effects upon Sgt Smyth of the defendant's actions.