Special Criminal Court convicts Belfast man of murder

A Belfast dissident republican became the first person to be convicted by a Dublin court today for the murder of a man in Belfast last year.

Gerard Mackin, who was linked to the Continuity IRA, was jailed for life by the Special Criminal Court after he was found guilty of the murder of Belfast taxi driver Eddie Burns in the city last year.

He was also convicted of attempted murder, possession of a revolver and causing serious harm and will be sentenced next week for those offences. Members of Mr Burns’s family applauded from the public gallery when the court announced it’s guilty verdict.

Gerard Mackin had denied the murder of Mr Edward Burns, a 36-year-old father of five, of Prospect Park, Belfast, at Bog Meadow, Falls Road, Belfast on March 12, last year.

He had also denied the attempted murder of Mr Damien O' Neill (aged 25), the possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and causing serious harm to Mr O' Neill on the same date.

Mackin(aged 26), a native of the Whiterock area of west Belfast, with an address at Raheen Close, Tallaght, Dublin opted for trial in the Republic under the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act of 1976 which allows suspects to be tried in the Republic for alleged offences in Britain or Northern Ireland.

The three-judge non-jury court last month heard evidence over two days at Belfast Crown Court from a number of witnesses who were reluctant to travel to Dublin, including the main prosecution witness, Mr Damien O' Neill, who was himself shot twice during the incident but survived. It was the first time the judges of the Special Criminal Court sat in Belfast to hear evidence.

Mr O'Neill told the Belfast court that he had been drinking with Gerard Mackin and another man at various pubs in west Belfast on Sunday, March 11, 2007. He said that the three men ended up drinking at the Beehive Bar on the Falls Road until closing time and then they walked down the Ballymurphy Road.

Eddie Burns arrived and Mackin produced a gun and told Eddie he was being hijacked. Mr Burns was put in the back seat between him (O'Neill) and the other man. ``Eddie was pleading and saying 'What's wrong, am I being shot here?','' he said.

Mackin stopped the car and got out and Eddie Burns got out and Mackin threw him to the ground. "Eddie was pleading for his life. Mackin was just coming up with stuff like f**k off, f**kup, f**kup.

"Eddie pleaded again and told him he wanted to go back to his kids and he had a heart problem. I said 'Gerard don't do it, don't do it'. He (Mackin) just walked over and shot Eddie in the back of the head.''

"I looked down at Eddie and his body was just flopping. He was shaking all over," he added.

Mr O'Neill said that Mackin then leaned over to put the gun in the back of the car and he (O'Neill) grabbed it and ran away, but Mackin chased him and he tripped and the gun fell to the ground. Mackin grabbed the gun.

"I was pleading for my life, don't shoot me, don't shoot me. He shot me in the arm ands seconds later he shot me in the neck.''

Mr O'Neill said he hit the ground and then managed to get up and he saw Mackin point the gun at him.

"It was just clicking, it wasn't firing,'' he said.

He said that Mackin drove away and he managed to stagger to the road where a passing taxi stopped and took him to hospital. He said that despite surgery the bullet was still lodged in his neck.

The trial was only the third in the Republic under the Criminal Law Jurisdiction Act.

The first person to be tried under the 1976 anti-terrorist law was Gerard Tuite, the IRA prisoner who escaped from Brixton Prison in 1980. Tuite was jailed for ten years by the Special Criminal Court in July 1982 for IRA offences committed in Britain.

The 1976 Act was also used in 1992 when two Northern Ireland men, James Hughes and Conor O'Neill were jailed by the Special Criminal Court for twelve years for the attempted murder of UDR soldier Mr William Eric Glass at Belleek, Co Fermanagh in February 1992.