Video: Widow’s ‘prayers answered’ when Swatragh killer was jailed

Seamus Kearney was found guilty in December 2013 of killing RUC Reserve Constable John Proctor, from Upperlands, as he visited his wife and new-born son at the Mid-Ulster Hospital in Magherafelt.

The Swatragh man was sentenced to life, but will only serve two years.

June McMullin told the BBC that the time he will spend in jail would be “a joke”.

She was lying in her hospital bed together with her newborn son John when she heard the sound of her husband being ambushed as he left following a hospital visit.

Mrs McMullin described Seamus Kearney as a “scumbag” who had shown no remorse in court.

She said her family’s day had come when the guilty verdict was passed, but was critical of the fact that he would only serve two years in prison under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

She told MLAs that after the family heard the verdict: “We were delighted as a family, but there were three people missing - Johnny’s mummy and my parents. “I know the HET (Historical Enquiries Team) doesn’t work for everyone, but for us, we got a result, we got closure. We saw this as justice, a guilty verdict.

“The time he has to serve is a joke, the Good Friday Agreement seemed to be the way forward but no-one knew the outcome would be convicted terrorists only serving two years in jail.”