Catholic 'murdered after priest kidnap plan aborted'

A Catholic taxi driver was murdered after plans to kidnap three priests from a parochial house in Co Armagh were aborted, Belfast Crown Court heard today.

Clifford McKeown, 43, is accused of shooting Michael McGoldrick dead in July 1996 at the height of the Drumcree crisis.

On the first day of his trial, prosecution barrister Gordon Kerr QC said feared LVF leader Billy Wright had planned to abduct the priests and shoot them if Orangemen were not allowed to walk down the Garvaghy Road in Portadown.

The plan was dropped because of possible adverse publicity.

The court heard that McKeown confessed to murder during a series of interviews in July and August 1999 at Maghaberry Prison with freelance journalist Nick Martin-Clarke.

Mr Kerr said McKeown had told the journalist that the date of the killing was Billy Wright’s birthday and Mr McGoldrick was his birthday present. McKeown’s role was to put a team together for the killing, the court was told.

Mr McGoldrick, a 37-year-old father, picked up a fare from the Centrepoint cinema and leisure complex in Lurgan, Co Armagh, before midnight on July 7, 1996 and was lured to a remote spot.

The court heard that McKeown, who had been waiting in another car, opened the back door of the taxi and fired four times into Mr McGoldrick’s head. He then fired one final shot to “finish him off”.

Questioned after Mr Martin Clarke made a statement to the police, McKeown, who has pleaded not guilty to murder, denied making any confessions to him.

He claimed instead that the journalist had put details of the killing to him during their meetings but said he did not comment one way or the other.