A man and a woman have been found guilty of murdering a 66-year-old man whose body was thrown over the cliffs at Sliabh Liag in Co Donegal almost three years ago.
Alan Vial (39) and Nikita Burns (23), a former couple, were convicted on Thursday when a Central Criminal Court jury returned a guilty verdict by a 10 to two majority.
Vial, from Drumanoo Head, Killybegs, and Burns, of Carrick, Co Donegal, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Robert ‘Robin’ Wilkin in Co Donegal on June 25th, 2023.
The jury heard Mr Wilkin suffered at least two depressed fractures to his head before being put over Sliabh Liag, which ranks among Europe’s tallest sea cliffs.
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Following the verdict, Burns wept as prison officers took her from the court while Vial chatted with members of his legal team. They will be sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment at a sentencing hearing on Friday, when members of Mr Wilkin’s family will be invited to make a statement to the court.
The Irish Coast Guard recovered Mr Wilkin’s body from the sea eight days after he was thrown from the cliffs. Due to predator damage and decomposition, State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster was unable to identify a cause of death.
She noted multiple fractures to Mr Wilkin’s face but could not say which had been caused by the fall from the cliff and which related to a prior assault.
However, the jury heard the two fractures to the back of his head were not consistent with a fall down a cliff, but were “entirely consistent” with injuries that could have been caused by a bloody rock found by gardaí at the top of the cliffs. DNA testing showed blood and hairs on the rock were Mr Wilkin’s.
Each accused claimed the other used the rock to beat Mr Wilkin about the head before he was put over the cliffs.
However, the prosecution alleged they were part of a joint enterprise to cause serious injury to Mr Wilkin and therefore both guilty of murder. A majority of the jurors agreed.
The court heard Vial was arrested on the day after the killing for drunk driving after he crashed his car into a ditch near Glenties. Garda Aaron Meenaghan noticed some blood on the roof inside the car and cleaning products in the back. He alerted detectives in Letterkenny.
Burns was taken to Letterkenny Hospital for treatment after the crash but was discharged a short time later. She walked to her friend Chris Quinn’s house and made a number of admissions, including that she had “battered” a man with a rock “until his face was out the back of his head”.
Mr Quinn recalled Burns saying that she “liked doing it”.
Another witness, Sharon O’Dowd, spoke to Burns on the phone and recorded her making similar admissions. Burns told Ms O’Dowd the body would not be found but she was concerned that they might get caught because of the blood in the car.
“If I go down for it, I go down,” she said.
After Burns was arrested on suspicion of murder, she resiled from those comments and claimed it was Vial who had beaten Mr Wilkin’s head six or seven times with the rock. She denied having any part in the assault or putting him over the cliff.
Vial made no admissions in his garda interviews, telling detectives he had a fight with Mr Wilkin at Sliabh Liag. He said he “winded” the pensioner by striking him in the stomach and then placed him over a fence about four metres from the cliff face, from where he could have “rolled over the edge”.
During the trial, Vial took the stand and claimed he was grappling with Mr Wilkin in the back of a Volkswagen Passat after a day of heavy drinking in Dunkineely.
He said his co-accused suddenly appeared at the front passenger door and twice struck Mr Wilkin on the back of the head, causing his death.
Vial denied ever striking Mr Wilkin but accepted that he drove to Sliabh Liag where he and Burns lifted Mr Wilkin over a low fence near the cliff, from where he rolled over the edge.
CCTV footage from pubs in Dunkineely suggested there was tension between Mr Wilkin and Vial earlier in the night.
After they left the pub, Vial claimed that a row erupted when Mr Wilkin took exception to him criticising his driving. He claimed Mr Wilkin stopped the car, turned in his seat and began punching him in the face. He claimed this was the point when Burns appeared at the front door with the rock.
In his closing speech, Bernard Condon SC, prosecuting, told the jury that Vial had told about 80 per cent of the truth but was not willing to own up to his part in murdering Mr Wilkin.
He described Vial as a “cynical liar” who had used his knowledge of the book of evidence to weave a story that he thought could not be contradicted.
Burns, Mr Condon said, was convicted by the words that came out of her own mouth to Mr Quinn and Ms O’Dowd.
