IRA bomber jailed for shop atrocity David McKittrick reports on the sentencing of a terrorist whose attack led to 1 0 deaths and plunged Northern Ireland into despair
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Your support makes all the difference.The 21-year-old IRA man who survived the Shankill Road bombing was yesterday given nine life sentences for causing the deaths of two children, four women and three men in the explosion.
The judge told him he was guilty of one of the most appalling atrocities perpetrated in a quarter-of-a-century of terrorist violence. Sean Kelly, of Brompton Park, Ardoyne, did not contest any of the evidence in the case.
As he was led away after sentencing, he said something in Irish and a relative of one of the victims called out from the public gallery: "I hope you die in jail, you bastard."
The tenth person to die in the attack was another IRA member, Thomas Begley, who was close to the bomb when it exploded. The court heard his badly mutilated remains were removed from the premises in two body bags.
The IRA intention was to blow up loyalist offices above a Shankill Road fish shop. Begley and Kelly, dressed in white coats, carried the bomb into the shop. But the device went off prematurely, killing Begley and the nine other people who were in or outside the shop during a busy Saturday lunchtime period.
Kelly refused to recognise the court and remained seated yesterday as Lord Justice McDermott read out his judgment at Belfast Crown Court. The Crown case was that the bombers meant to kill anyone in the building or its vicinity, since a timing device on the bomb gave a maximum of 11 seconds to clear the premises.
Kelly was also given a 25-year sentence for causing the explosion. The judge said that the cold facts of the case made clear the awfulness of what he had done, causing lasting anguish and suffering to the relatives of those who died.
Later some of the relatives complained that the judge should have stipulated that Kelly should stay in prison for at least 30 years, or for the rest of his natural life.
April Brown, the sister of one man who died with his girlfriend and their daughter, said: "It's just a disgrace. He should be serving his whole lifetime in prison.
"In fact I'd love to see hanging coming back because I would love to be there in the front row to see him being hung by the neck. I would be there and I would be cheering it on because I think he's one bad wee pig. He showed no remorse at all today."
It was open to the judge to recommend a minimum period of up to 35 years before Kelly should be considered for release, but he chose not to do so. That means Kelly received the same sentence as the paratrooper Private Lee Clegg, jailed for the murder of teenage joyrider.
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