THERE WAS an aching tension in Antrim Crown Court when the Azimkar and Quinsey families learned there would be CCTV footage showing their loves ones being gunned to death.
To the right of the court, from the perspective of Mr Justice Hart, sat the families of British soldiers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey, who were cut down by dissident republican gunmen at the entrance to Massereene Barracks in Antrim on March 7th, 2009.
They were identifiable by their anxious demeanour and the Remembrance poppies some of them were wearing.
To the left of the court were the friends and relatives of the defendants, Colin Duffy and Brian Shivers, who sat in the central dock flanked by prison officers.
Duffy, who has been on dirty protest while on remand at Maghaberry Prison, sat in court with a thick, long beard and dark clothing.
Prosecuting lawyer Terence Mooney QC had primed everyone for what was coming.
This allowed four members of the victims’ families, including an elderly woman, to leave the room. Others stayed.
The “play” button was hit and we saw a red Mazda car outside the British army base and a group of soldiers going to the car to collect the Dominos pizzas they had ordered. Six were ordered but only two delivered and the soldiers were annoyed.
Then a second dark VW car arrived with more pizzas and they headed to that car to see whether the full order had arrived.
Then the shooting started. You see some of the soldiers stumbling and falling and, it appeared, one of them trying to take shelter in one of the cars.
You see the two gunmen firing their automatic assault rifles from the shoulder position.
In all, Sappers Azimkar and Quinsey died, three other soldiers were seriously injured or shocked and two delivery men and a civilian security guard were seriously injured or shocked.
One of the three soldiers who survived said that Azimkar pushed him to the ground after the shooting started.
There is no sound and the picture is rather juddery at times. The gunmen seem to go out of image briefly and then return to fire more shots – 65 bullets in all were fired – to ensure, as Mooney expressed it, that their victims were “despatched”.
A Vauxhall Cavalier car drives alongside, the gunmen get in, and the getaway vehicle heads off towards Randelstown.
One of those in the car tries to make a call on his mobile phone but, in so doing, accidentally records himself.
“There was a few dead all right,” a country voice is heard to say. And then. “I have to say boys you were as cool as f**k.” Then they abort the call.
The dissident gang members abandon their car at a quiet country crossroads and then they did what paramilitary groups seldom did during the Troubles: they bungled the burning of the getaway car. Items were recovered such as two mobile phones, bullets, combat fatigues, a few spent matches, some soil and the tip of a latex glove that, through DNA and other evidence, the prosecution argues, will link Duffy and Shivers to the murders.
They have pleaded not guilty.
