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Uno zaino salvò amico di Thomas Devlin

Bag ‘saved’ Thomas Devlin’s friend

The best friend of murdered schoolboy Thomas Devlin “probably” survived the knife attack which killed him because he had offered to carry the teenager’s rucksack.

The Belfast Crown Court jury of eight men and four women were told that before the friends were attacked by two men in August 2005, Jonathan McKee had offered to carry Thomas’s rucksack.

It was by doing so that “inadvertently his life was probably saved” as the knife which killed the teenager only penetrated and pierced a can of spray paint inside instead of his body.

In the dock charged with murdering 15-year-old Thomas, attempting to murder Jonathan and attempting to cause him grievous bodily harm are north Belfast men Nigel James Brown, 26, from the Whitewell Road and Gary Ryan Taylor, 23, from Mountcollyer Avenue.

Last February Brown, who had always denied being anywhere near the scene of the attack, pleaded guilty to attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to Jonathan.

Opening the case against them, London-based QC Toby Hedworth said it was the Crown case the pair had set off that evening with Brown carrying a two foot bat under his coat and Taylor armed with a knife, “just wanting to attack someone”, neither knowing nor caring who they attacked.

He described to the jury how Thomas, Jonathan and another friend Fintan Maguire were set upon “quite deliberately and without warning” as they walked along Somerton Park in north Belfast, not far from where the Brown and Taylor then lived in Ross House in the Mount Vernon estate.

Mr Hedworth said while Fintan managed to escape over the wall of nearby St. Patrick’s School Thomas was dragged back, allegedly by Taylor “the taller of the two” and ferociously attacked with the knife while Brown set about Jonathan with the bat, beating him about the head and shoulders.

Following the murderous attack, the pair then allegedly “strolled off along Somerton Road”.

On Wednesday, the juries are set to visit north Belfast where they were attacked.

The trial, set to last up to two months, continues.

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René Querin

Di professione grafico e web designer, sono appassionato di trekking e innamorato dell'Irlanda e della sua storia. Insieme ad Andrea Varacalli ho creato e gestisco Les Enfants Terribles.

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