Nairac murder trial starts
A 60-year-old Co Armagh man, said to have gone on the run to the US for over 27 years, has gone on trial for the murder of undercover soldier Captain Robert Laurence Nairac, 33 years ago.
Captain Nairac was abducted in south Armagh in 1977 and taken across the border to Co Louth and killed.
Belfast Crown Court heard that Kevin Crilly allegedly confessed to a TV documentary team under his birth name Declan Power, that he had a “minimal” involvement in the murder of the Grenadier Guardsman in May 1977.
Mr Crilly, from Lowerfoughill Road, Jonesborough, denies the murder of Captain Nairac between 13 and 16 May 1977 and “associated charges” which involved the abduction and holding of the soldier.
A crown lawyer said this was a case “resonant with echoes of a dark past”, it also “illustrates that the passage of time will not absolve the crimes of those charged with grievous offences.”
“There is no statute of limitations in this jurisdiction,” the lawyer said adding that once the court applies the rule of law on the evidence it will conclude “that this accused is guilty of the offences with which he stands charged.”
The prosecution claims that following the abduction of Capt Nairac from the Three Steps Inn at Drumintee in South Armagh, Crilly, then aged 26, went and picked up the gunman Liam Townson, later convicted by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.
He allegedly drove him to the Humpbackbridge in the townland of Flurry Bridge, Ravensdale Forest in Co Louth where, according to Townson’s confession, Nairac was shot.
The case continues.
