‘Prophets’ get death penalty for killing Irish missionaries

TWO men were yesterday sentenced to death for killing a priest and an Irish nun during an attack on a St Lucia church in which they doused parishioners with petrol and set them alight.

Kim John, 22, and Francis Phillip, 35, showed little emotion when the judge read the sentence in the Caribbean island’s capital of Castries.

The men were found guilty murdering Sister Theresa Egan, 73, and Father Charles Gaillard, 62. They beat the nun to death and set the priest alight.

The two men told police God ordered them to carry out the attack on New Year’s Eve 2000, because of corruption in the Catholic Church.

They said they were Rastafarian “prophets” seeking revenge for the wrongs of the church. Other Rastafarians denounced the violence, saying it violated the religion’s belief in peaceful coexistence.

Responding to the death by hanging sentence by High Court Judge Indra Hariprashad-Charles, John echoed the song Small Axe by the late Reggae singer Bob Marley, saying: “Whosoever diggeth the pit, shall fall in it.”

He also told the judge, “I rather go to the grave than to be a slave in your evil society.”

Defence lawyer Kenneth Foster said the two would appeal to the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal. He had said his clients should be spared the death penalty because they are mentally ill.

But the judge said she believed the “premeditated plan” by the men, their lack of remorse and mercy deserved the death penalty.

“This is one of the worst cases of murder in the history of St Lucia,” she said, adding the men were “sane and not under any delusion.”

The Caribbean island had its last hanging in 1995. The two could eventually take their appeal to Britain’s Privy Council, the final court of appeal for many former British colonies.

During their two-week trial that began early in April, the defendants criticised Pope John Paul and the Queen, although their statements were often incoherent.

Phillip described how the priest and nun begged, “Don’t do that,” as he and John approached them at the church altar with their torches.

He said John set fire to Mr Gaillard and struck Ms Egan repeatedly over the head with his torch. When some worshippers tried to take the torch from Phillip, he recalled, he doused them with petrol and set them alight.

Sister Theresa, originally from Clonaslee in County Laois, had lived in the Caribbean since 1949 and had been in St Lucia for more than four decades, serving as a teacher and administrator at several schools.

She belonged to the Irish Order of St Joseph of Cluny, which has administered education programme on the island for nearly 100 years.