THE fiancée of a Derby soldier gunned down by Irish terrorists says the release of one of his killers after less than three years makes her "angry" and takes away her "bit of justice".
Michael Newman was shot dead in 1992 after leaving an Army recruitment office in Derby city centre.
Three Irish National Liberation Army terrorists had travelled to the city to murder a soldier and had been watching the 34-year-old's movements for weeks. They followed him as he made his way back to his parked car and shot him dead as he reached Liversage Street.
In July 2010, Declan Duffy pleaded guilty to the murder and a judge ordered he serve a minimum of 24 years. But now, two years and eight months later, it has been revealed the former INLA boss, now 38, has been freed, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
He is back in Dublin, where he has previously been probed by police over alleged links to the city's criminal underworld.
Elizabeth Robinson, who was 28 when Sgt Newman, a Royal Signal Corps recruitment officer, was gunned down, said she had been informed about his release by victim support officers.
Mrs Robinson, of Chaddesden, said: "It really makes me angry but I have to learn to deal with that. I expected it.
"Why did he give himself up in the first place? He knew this would happen.
"He just wants to get back to his lovely, little family that he's got. It's a joke."
Mrs Robinson, who had been with her "soul mate" Sergeant Newman for five years when he was killed, said it would have given her some solace to know the killers remained locked up.
She said: "It doesn't bring Michael back but they should serve their sentences.
"That is my bit of justice – they should serve their time.
"I just look at it like he's just been allowed to get away with it.
"Would he like someone to walk up and just take one of his family?
"He's got family, so he must be able to imagine what it feels like."
Mrs Robinson, 49, said she had had to move on in her life but that did not mean forgetting Sergeant Newman or that it got any easier.
Mrs Robinson said: "Not a day goes by in which I don't think about Michael. While you remember someone, they are always alive. No one can take my memories of him, not even them. I haven't stopped loving him and never will.
"I will never forget what they have done. I've just had to find a way to deal with it and cope with things."
Mrs Robinson said she had been at court in Stafford when Duffy was sentenced.
She said: "I dared myself to look at him once because that was enough for me. My friends said that when the judge told him to stand up, he didn't quiver or show any remorse, he didn't even flinch.
"He just stood there, just like a cold person."
At the time, Sgt Newman's family were told that Duffy had apologised to them for what he had done.
Yesterday, Mrs Robinson, who works as a nurse, said: "He wouldn't get forgiveness from me. That would not be closure for me."
Sgt Newman was unarmed and not in uniform when he was shot in the head at point-blank range. He was taken to intensive care at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary but his life support machine was switched off the next day. He had never served in Ulster.
The INLA – an IRA splinter group – claimed responsibility for the murder, writing to Sgt Newman's devastated parents telling them their son was simply another cog in the wheel in their fight to bring down the British Army.
Derbyshire police identified three suspects – Anthony Gorman, Joe Magee and 19-year-old Duffy.
They were later arrested in the Irish Republic but were not extradited to the UK due to legal arguments raised by their lawyers.
The trio had successfully argued the allegation they faced concerned a "political" offence which meant extradition was inappropriate.
They stayed in the Republic of Ireland and were immune from prosecution there.
In 2004, Magee was arrested in Ulster and sentenced to 25 years but released after just two under the Good Friday agreement.
Gorman is still wanted but is fighting his extradition from Ireland.
Sgt Newman left his parents, Joyce and Eric, and daughter, Danielle, who was six at the time.
