A 36-YEAR-OLD MAN from Armagh has been sentenced to life in prison by Stafford Crown Court for the murder of a British soldier 18 years ago.

Declan Duffy, who is originally from Armagh and was once a member of the INLA, pleaded guilty to the murder of Sergeant Michael Newman in Derby, England, on 14 April 1992.

Sgt Newman, 33, was shot dead outside an army recruitment office. Duffy said he would write to Newman’s family to explain why he was killed, but the sergeant’s former fiance, Elizabeth Robinson, said she could never forgive Duffy for the murder.

“I became a completely different person after the man I loved was taken away,” she said.

In May last year, at the Special Criminal Court in Ireland, Duffy pleaded guilty to membership of the INLA before publicly disassociating himself from the organisation before the court. He is already serving a four-year term for that membership, due to end in 2011.

He was extradited to Britain on a European Arrest warrant.

Joseph Magee was jailed for 25 years in 2004 after pleading guilty to Sgt Newman’s murder.