Republican guilty of Massereene barracks murders Brian Shivers, 46, of Magherafelt, Co Londonderry, who is suffering from cystic fibrosis, was found guilty by Mr Justice Anthony Hart at a packed and tense Antrim Crown Court. Earlier, a co-accused, Colin Duffy, 44 from Lurgan, Co Armagh was cleared for his alleged part in the March 2009 ambush on the soldiers at the main gates to the army base at Massereene, Antrim - even though the judge said DNA evidence found on the tip of a glove linked him to the gunmen's getaway car. But he added: "I consider that there is insufficient evidence to satisfy me beyond reasonable doubt that whatever Mr Duffy may have done when he wore the latex glove or touched a seatbelt buckle meant that he was preparing the car in some way for this murderous attack." And therefore I find him not guilty. It was the second time Duffy, a married man, and closely identified with dissident republicans opposed to the peace process, has been cleared of murder. Police chiefs left the court bitterly disappointed with his acquittal. London and Birmingham relatives of the two soldiers who died, Sappers Patrick Azimkar, 21 and Mark Quinsey, 23, listened for three hours as Mr Justice Hart delivered his verdict. They were the first soldiers to be murdered in Northern Ireland since 1997. Shivers, a divorcee, unemployed because of his illness and engaged to marry a Protestant girl, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Just months before he launched his attack at Massereene doctors told him he had only three or four years to live. Mr Justice Hart said today that he had invented an alibi for his movements on the night of the murders. He was satisfied that DNA found on matchsticks recovered from the partially burned out getaway car, a green Vauxhall Cavalier - it was abandoned on a road eight miles from the scene - was the one which Shivers had set alight. But the car was not completely destroyed and allowed detectives to retrieve vital DNA evidence. The soldiers from the 38 Engineer Regiment were about to begin a tour of duty in Afghanistan when they were gunned down in an attack by republicans opposed to the Good Friday peace deal of 1998. The victims were dressed in their desert fatigues and were within hours of leaving the base. The were collecting pizzas at the front gate when they came under fire. Two other soldiers and two pizza delivery drivers, were injured in the gun attack. The Vauxhall Cavalier car used used by the gang was found abandoned in a rural location eight miles away. Duffy first hit the headlines 20 years ago after he was cleared of an IRA murder. Duffy, described in court as an unemployed labourer, was subsequently convicted of the murder. Three years earlier, Duffy, then aged 22, was caught up in a loyalist gun attack that remains, to this day, shrouded in controversy. He and two other republicans were reporting to Lurgan's Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) station to sign in as part of bail conditions on charges of possession of ammunition. The three were followed by a red Maestro car, later disclosed to be a military intelligence vehicle, before a second car also appeared on the scene. A witness claimed: "He faced the masked man, and the masked man killed him." In 1997, Duffy faced more murder charges after two police officers on foot patrol were shot around midday in the centre of Lurgan. Constable John Graham and Reserve Constable David Johnston were both in their 30s and married with young children. Duffy was arrested by police who claimed a witness linked him to the killing. But the case collapsed after other witnesses came forward in defence of Duffy.