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Monday, 08 June 2009

McDaid murder accused refused bail

One of the men accused of killing Catholic youth worker Kevin McDaid was refused High Court bail on Monday amid concerns about possible interference with witnesses.

Christopher McDowell, 33, is charged with murdering the father of four in Coleraine just over two weeks ago.

Mr McDaid, 49, was beaten to death after a drunken mob of up to 30 people left a bar to go on a sectarian rampage through a nationalist part of the town, the court heard.

McDowell, of Glebe Avenue, Coleraine, is among 10 suspects accused in connection with the attack last month.

He is also charged with the attempted murder of another local Catholic man, Damien Fleming, who was assaulted and seriously injured.

Threats

During his application for bail it was claimed that five witnesses in the case are under threat.

Two of them have received police warnings that their lives are in danger while another three were said to have received direct threats telling them to leave Coleraine.

It was alleged in court that an orchestrated assault was launched on the Heights area because Irish tricolour flags had been erected.

Attempts to defuse tensions in the town on the day of the killing, which came after Rangers beat Celtic to claim the Scottish Premier League title, were also disclosed.

The prosecution said community liaison efforts were made before a crowd quit a pub and headed for the Heights. It was claimed at least one of them was wielding a weapon - possibly a baton or stick.

Witness statements alleged there were chants of "UDA" as the attack was being carried out.

He said the seriousness of the charges, combined with the strength of the evidence and allegations of witness intimidation pointed to a risk of possible interference with the course of justice if the defendant was released.

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5 Comments

At 15:24 on 24 June 2009, lorna wrote:

I would never justify anyone who took human life for the sake of removing flags.In order to understand why this happened we have to look at why flags go up in the first place. It's like what animals do to claim territory. Not for the good of community relations but to show the other side, this is our claim.There is no need for flags flown in NI and they cause more tension. we have to come to a time when the division is removed and this bitterness has gone and our future generations no long wish to fly flags

At 19:41 on 09 June 2009, paul wrote:

its typical loyalists/unionists in coleraine to blame catholics from the heights for a group of loyalists leavin a pub to take down a tricolore. coleraine loyalists are scared of that heppenin..there is no equality in coleraine. theres union jacks or nothin. this isn the first time they have descended on the heights, its just the first time someone has been killed and its made the news. like i say coleraine is full of dummies (on both sides) but loyalism now in coleraine is simply scared that catholics/nationalists are growing in number and confidence and this is why they are trying to intimidate the loudest/boldest of them.

At 00:47 on 09 June 2009, Andy wrote:

This event could so easily have been avoided if tensions had not been allowed to build over 11 months. But as usual, Blame Loyalism in General and ignore the cause of the tensions!

At 16:52 on 08 June 2009, ruairi wrote:

Lorna: one would question why the only thing you could pick out of this passage of report was about flags. its an awful indictment on this society that if you truly believe that flying flags was just the issue and not the underlaying hatred presented by these thugs in the first place then it truly is a sad state we are in. It doesnt matter who this man was in terms of religion, race or whatever. The fact is an innocent person was killed with another man seriously injured by nothing more than sick animals. What I would find more worrying lorna is the fact that anybody wishing to help convict these ruthless thugs are being issued with death threats and orders to leave the country. What I believe you have wrote could be construed as you attempting to justify what happened.

At 16:00 on 08 June 2009, lorna wrote:

One would question the mentality of the persons who put up those flags. Those who put up flags loyalist or otherwise are not doing so for the good of the community but sending a message to others. It should be against the law to put up flags to intimidate others