A man accused of murdering two British soldiers is not alleged to have said anything in a suspected mobile phone recording made by the killers, his lawyer has stressed.

Brian Shivers' solicitor said no direct link was drawn to him following High Court revelations that a taped conversation involving the Real IRA assassins was recovered by police.

Shivers (44) of Sperrin Mews, Magherafelt, is charged with the murders of sappers Mark Quinsey (23) and Patrick Azimkar (21) at the gates of Massereene Army barracks in March.

During a failed application for bail on Monday prosecutors said two mobile phones were recovered from a getaway car.

It was claimed that a conversation was inadvertently recorded on one of the phones, with one gang member declaring: “There's a few dead all right.”

Later in the transcript a second mobile phone rings before the instruction is given: “Hang it up. Turn it off. Fair enough.”

Shivers was denied bail despite £325,000 in cash and property being offered as sureties.

But following the refusal, defence lawyer Niall Murphy emphasised yesterday that nothing about the recordings had been directly linked to his client.

Mr Murphy said: “At no stage was it mentioned in court that those remarks had anything to do with Mr Shivers.”