Judgement due today on McConville and Wootton appeal

Constable Stephen Carroll was shot dead in March 2009 in a dissident ambush two days after two British soldiers were murdered in a Real IRA gun attack outside their barracks in Antrim.

He died of a single gunshot wound to the head sustained as he sat in an unmarked police car while colleagues attended a 999 call in the Lismore Manor area.

Three years later Brendan McConville, 43, and John Paul Wootton, 23, were found guilty at Belfast Crown Court of murdering the 48-year-old officer from Banbridge.

McConville, originally from Craigavon, is serving at least a 25 year sentence for the murder.

Wootton, from Lurgan, was handed a minimum 14-year term.

Their appeal was heard in Belfast High Court last year by Northern Ireland’s Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan, Lord Justice Coghlin and Lord Justice Higgins. Judgment was reserved.