Ulster Unionist Justice Spokesperson Doug Beattie MC MLA, has described the five-year sentences handed out to two republican terrorists who tried to bomb a police recruitment event in Londonderry, as pathetic and an insult to victims of terrorism.   

Doug Beattie MC said:

“In the pitifully inadequate sentences handed out to two terrorists who attempted to bomb a police recruitment event at a Londonderry hotel in October 2015, the Northern Ireland legal system has once again demonstrated very publicly just how out of touch it is with both reality and public opinion.

“The concepts of punishment and deterrence seem to be entirely alien concepts to the Northern Ireland judicial system. Pathetic sentences of five years in prison, plus five years on licence are a complete insult to victims of terrorism in particular and society in general.   

“Either we as a society take terrorist violence seriously or we don’t. If we are taking it seriously then we need to see robust policing operations against terrorists and meaningful sentences against these individuals once they are caught. Once again the police have done their job and must be commended, but once again they have been let down by the sentences handed out by a court.  

“All too often our courts hand out weak sentences that suggest a toleration of a certain level of violence as inevitable and even normal.  

“Former Royal Marine Ciaran Maxwell received an 18-year sentence, plus five more on licence, for a variety of terrorist offences from the Old Bailey in London. How he must wish he had been sentenced in a Northern Ireland court!  

“We also have the curious and hypocritical stance of Sinn Fein which on the one hand condemns so-called dissident republican violence, yet is happy to provide assistance to those who are jailed and then continues to support the separated regime in our prisons with the privileged position it provides for those convicted of terrorist offences at huge expense.”