Omicidio Thomas Devlin: i due assassini condannati a 30 e 22 anni di carcere

Man given 30 years for Thomas Devlin murder

A man who stabbed 15-year-old schoolboy Thomas Devlin to death has been jailed for a minimum of 30 years at Belfast Crown Court.

Gary Taylor, 23, of Mountcollyer Avenue in north Belfast, was convicted of murdering the teenager in August 2005 in what the judge said was a horrifying and brutal attack.

He was also sentenced to 20 years to run concurrently for the attempted murder of Thomas’s friend Jonathan McKee.

Taylor’s accomplice, Nigel Brown, 27, from Whitewell Road in north Belfast, was jailed for a minimum of 22 years for his part in the killing.

He also received 15 years to run concurrently for the attempted murder of Jonathan McKee.

Mr Justice McLaughlin told the court that it was an attack on ‘utterly defenceless and harmless boys’.

Thomas Devlin and his friends were attacked as they walked home along the Somerton Road in the north of the city, having bought sweets in a local garage.

The Catholic schoolboy tried to run away from his attackers, but was pulled off a wall and stabbed nine times with a knife.

The judge said the attack on Thomas Devlin was ‘sustained and deliberate’ and was ‘designed to cause maximum damage’. The assault on Jonathan McKee was described as ‘frenzied’.

Mr Justice McLaughlin said the punishment must fit the crime and that the need for retribution, punishment and deterrence were factors that influenced the fixing of the sentence.

The judge said although the prosecution had sought to characterise the attack as sectarian, he could not be sure, but there was no doubt that the defendants had deeply ingrained bitter sectarian attitudes towards Catholics.

The victim’s parents were in court to hear the sentence being handed out. Referring to the Devlin family’s struggle to get the case to trial, Mr Justice McLaughlin said it had proved ‘incredibly arduous for the families and friends of the victims’.

The judge also appealed to schools, churches, parents and the media to get the message across that a knife inflicts very serious injuries.

He said the message sent out by the court must be clear, unambiguous and reinforce the determination of the courts to deal decisively with vicious violence of this kind.