A man has told his murder trial that he was fighting with a pensioner - whose body was found in the waters beneath Sliabh Liag - when his co-accused hit the victim on the back of the head with a rock, causing him to stop breathing.
Alan Vial (39) said that he lied in his Garda interviews and didn’t reveal what he now alleges his former lover Nikita Burns (23) had done because he was “trying to protect Nikita, because I had feelings for her”.
He accepted that after he noticed that Mr Wilkin was not breathing, he drove to Sliabh Liag “to get rid of the body” but he couldn’t remember whose idea it was to put Mr Wilkin over the cliffs.
He said that Ms Burns took money from the dead man’s pocket before they both carried his body towards a fence, with Mr Vial holding the head with Ms Burns holding the feet.
Fintan O’Toole: Trump’s adoption of imperial manner is a function of failure
Gerry Thornley: There is a theory France losing to England is good for Ireland, but is it?
Regretting working outside the home: ‘We’re told to parent like we don’t work. And work like we don’t parent’
Should I charge my homebird adult children rent?
“We got him up onto the fence and then we dropped him to the other side and he rolled from there off the edge of the cliff,” he said.
Mr Vial said he did not know Ms Burns was going to use a rock to strike Mr Wilkin and did not ask her or want her to hit him. He said he didn’t encourage her to hit the deceased and did not want Mr Wilkin, who he described as his friend, to die.
Mr Vial will continue his evidence on Tuesday.
Mr Vial of Drumanoo Head, Killybegs, Co Donegal and Ms Burns of Carrick, Co Donegal, have both pleaded not guilty to the murder of 66-year-old Robert ‘Robin’ Wilkin in Donegal on June 25th, 2023.
The Central Criminal Court trial has previously heard that Mr Wilkin’s body was discovered in the sea below the Sliabh Liag cliffs, eight days after his alleged murder.
A postmortem examination revealed he had suffered two depressed fractures to the skull that were not in keeping with the injuries sustained in the fall.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of seven women and five men.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
