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'Craigavon Two' campaigners hope protest song will chart

GROUP set up to campaign for two men convicted of killing policeman Stephen Carroll have released a song to highlight the case.

The Justice for the Craigavon Two campaign group hopes the song will make it into the Irish and British top 40 next week.

Craigavon men Brendan McConville and John Paul Wootton both deny any part in the Continuity IRA sniper attack that claimed the life of Mr Carroll, pictured, as he answered an emergency call in Lurgan, Co Armagh, in March 2009.

McConville is currently serving a 25-year sentence while Wootton was handed an 18-year term.

The Court of Appeal in Belfast rejected their appeal last year.

However, it has since been referred to the Supreme Court in London.

Independent Lisburn councillor Angela Nelson, who is chair of the campaign, said it "is aimed at raising awareness of the miscarriage of justice".

"In a democratic society no organisation or institution is beyond reproach. It is our democratic right to challenge the justice system on what we and respected legal human rights campaigners believe to me a miscarriage of justice," she said.

Relatives of people killed on Bloody Sunday and in the 'Ballymurphy massacre' attended the launch at Conway Mill in west Belfast.

If the song - Justice for the Craigavon Two sung by Pól Mac-Adaim - makes it into the Top 40 the BBC will have to decide if it should be played when the charts are aired on Radio One next Sunday.

Mayor of Craigavon, Ulster Unionist councillor Colin McCusker has called on the Apple Corporation (for itunes) and the BBC to ban the tune while Omagh District Council has also written to Apple to voice concerns.