New bid to overturn murder conviction
A former Ulster Defence Regiment soldier today launched a bid to get the House of Lords to overturn a 20-year-old murder conviction.
For Armagh man Neil Latimer, it is his fourth attempt to clear his name after being convicted of the 1983 murder of Catholic man Adrian Carroll in the city.
His lawyers lodged papers in the High Court in Belfast as the first stage of getting his case before the Law Lords.
The Court Service said a judge was studying the papers to decide on the merits of the latest appeal.
Less than two weeks ago Latimer, 41, lost his third appeal when three Appeal Court judges in Belfast upheld his conviction.
Latimer and three other UDR soldiers became known as the UDR Four after their conviction.
While the other three were released on appeal Latimer served 14 years in jail before being released under licence in 1998.
His case was referred back to the Appeal Court for the recent record third time following a Criminal Case Review Commission inquiry.
But the appeal was turned down when the three judges unanimously rejected a suggestion that he only confessed to the murder because he had a compliant personality and detectives had broken his will.
His lawyers said at the time they would be taking advice about taking the case to the European Court in Strasbourg. Before they can do that they have to go to the House of Lords.
Adrian Carroll, 24, was shot dead in the centre of Armagh in a killing claimed by the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force.
At the trial of the four UDR men it was claimed they had been part of a Land Rover patrol in the area.
The Crown said the murder had been carried out by one of the four with the co-operation of the others.
One member of the patrol was said to have changed into civilian clothes, disguised himself with cap and glasses.
As the appeal was launched Democratic Unionist Party Assembly member Ian Paisley Jnr, who has been closely involved in the fight to get the conviction quashed, said: “We want to get this back before the courts to rectify a terrible miscarriage of justice.”
