2 Guilty of killing N Ireland constable

Two members of a dissident Republican group were convicted Friday of gunning down a Police Service of Northern Ireland officer in 2009. Lord Justice Paul Girvan, who decided the case without a jury, called the killing of Constable Stephen Carroll "callous and cowardly," the Belfast Telegraph reported. Girvan spent three weeks weighing the evidence and 2 hours delivering his verdict in Belfast Crown Court. Brendan McConville, 40, of Tully Gally, and John Paul Wootton, 20, of Lurgan, received life sentences, The Guardian said. Carroll, 48, of Bainbridge, was killed in County Armagh in March 2009, two days after two British soldiers were shot dead at an Antrim barracks. Prosecutors said Carroll and other officers were lured to the area by a brick thrown through a house's window, and Carroll was shot in the head as he sat in an unmarked police car while other officers investigated. He was the first PSNI officer to be killed. The new police service replaced the Royal Ulster Constabulary, which was perceived as a Protestant and unionist force. Wootton was also found guilty of trying to obtain another police officer's address before Carroll was killed. His mother, Sharon Wootton, 39, pleaded guilty during the trial, admitting she hid computers at their home from police.