A Limerick criminal who moved to Northern Ireland four years ago following a Traveller feud was told yesterday he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Shane Frane (26) was given an indeterminate jail sentence of 12 years at the Crown Court in Derry after he admitted crashing a stolen car into an unmarked police car in the Waterside area of the city on February 9th last year, killing PSNI officer Phillipa Reynolds.

He’ll serve half the sentence in prison and half on licence, but Judge Philip Babington told him the indeterminate sentence “is broadly the same as a sentence of life imprisonment. This is because it is virtually certain that for the rest of your life you will either be in prison or in the community and subject to close control under licence conditions, and liable to be taken back to prison at a moment’s notice if you should break those conditions.



Parole

“The exact time that you will be released is something that will be decided by the Northern Ireland Parole Commissioners,” he said.

Frane, who has 77 convictions in the Republic and 20 in the North, admitted the manslaughter of Ms Reynolds, a former primary school who had been in the PSNI for two years. He and co-defendant Conor Clarence (24), whose addresses were given as care of the Simon Community at Bonds Hill in Derry, admitted breaking into a house and stealing keys for a Toyota Land Cruiser minutes before the fatal collision.



Killed instantly

Frane drove the vehicle through two sets of red traffic lights at speeds of up to 130km/h before he crashed into an unmarked armoured Vauxhall Vectra police car at the Dale’s Corner junction.

Ms Reynolds, who was a rear-seat passenger in the car, died instantly and two other officers were injured.

After the fatal crash, Frane and Clarence ran into nearby Ebrington Square, where they changed their clothing in an attempt to disguise themselves, before walking back past the scene of the incident. Hours later they were arrested at their address.

Judge Babington said Frane and Clarence, both of whom admitted a combined total of 11 charges linked to the incident, “cared not a jot for any other member of the community. It is quite clear that they went on a day-long binge of drink, fuelled by the consumption of large quantities of illegal drugs, and then deliberately stole a car so as to go on to some event in Limavady . . .

“Ms Reynolds’s death is particularly sad because it is said that she was doing a job that she loved and was serving the community at the time that she was so tragically killed,” Judge Babington added.