Man accused of murdering teens says co-accused ‘lied’

BY Staff Reporter
03/02/09

A MAN accused of stabbing two teenage friends to death has declared that he “definitely” had nothing to do with their killings.

Giving evidence at Belfast Crown Court for the second day, John McCrudden QC, defending, asked Steven Brown if he had played “any hand, act or part” in the murders of

Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine but was told firmly: “Definitely not.”

Mr Brown, also known as Steven Revels, claimed that the evidence of his one-time co-accused-turned-supergrass Mark Burcombe was “lies”.

The 28-year-old, from Castle Place in Castlecaulfield, denies murdering the teenagers on February 19 2000.

It is the prosecution case that the victims were lured to their deaths after Mr Robb allegedly made a disparaging comment about the

murder of Richard Jameson who has been described in court as a “commander of the UVF in Portadown”.

Mr Robb (19) and 18-year-old Mr McIlwaine were then driven to a remote road on the outskirts of Tandragee where they were repeatedly stabbed. They suffered multiple stab wounds including horrific injuries to their throats and stomachs.

Yesterday Mr Brown denied the friends had been drinking in his house on the night they were killed. He told Mr Justice Gillen that he and Noel Dillon had been in the house after going to a bar when there was a knock at door and he answered it to find two men looking for a party at a woman’s house.

“I said no, you’ve got the wrong house. I looked round and said ‘that’s Debbie’s house there,’ patted him on the back, says ‘right mate’ and he walked off,” Mr Brown said.

Previously Burcombe had claimed the pair were invited into the house for a drink but Mr Brown told Mr McCrudden the “two boys” who called did not come over the door.

During his evidence Burcombe, from the Ballynahinch Road in Lisburn, also told the court he saw Mr Brown stab Mr McIlwaine, that Mr Brown threatened to “cut his throat” if he told anyone and also that while at a court appearance at Newry, Mr Brown told him to allege that two men “lifted” him before ordering him to implicate Mr Brown in the murders or his family would be shot.

Asked about those allegations, Mr Brown said Burcombe’s evidence was “lies” as he had not been with him on the night of the murders.

He claimed the story from Newry Court was actually the other way around in that Burcombe had told him he had been “lifted” had a gun put in his mouth and ordered to implicate him.

Mr Brown admitted that when initially questioned by police, he had not mentioned having a drink with Burcombe the day after the murders and claimed he had not done so for fear that Burcombe was “a UVF man” and if he was then arrested, “I would have been shot”.

Under cross-examination from Gordon Kerr QC prosecuting, Mr Brown claimed the fact that tyre tracks which were found at the bloody scene which were similar to those on his Peugeot 205 car was a “coincidence”.

However, he conceded that he had no explanation as to how his blood and his DNA extracted from it were found on Mr McIlwaine’s body or how pieces of plastic found at the scene matched other pieces found outside his home Mr Brown did admit that Richard Jameson had been a friend of his, that he had associated in bars and with people who were “loosely associated” with the UVF and that he had been to various loyalist “do’s”.

The trial continues.