Man accused of Sliabh Liag murder accepts he lied to gardaí during interviews

Eoin Reynolds

A man accused of murdering a 66-year-old and putting his body over the cliffs at Sliabh Liag in Donegal has accepted he lied to gardaí when he claimed the pensioner had sexually assaulted his co-accused, then 21-year-old Nikita Burns.

Alan Vial (39) said he and Ms Burns, now 23 years old, "came up with a bit of a story" about how Robert 'Robin' Wilkin died.

He accepted that he lied in his Garda interviews in 2023 when he claimed Mr Wilkin was breathing when he and Ms Burns left him at Sliabh Liag. He said he lied about where the assault on Mr Wilkin happened and about the manner of his death.

Mr Vial agreed with Ms Burns's defence counsel Eoin Lawlor SC that it was his idea to suggest that Ms Burns was subjected to a sexual assault.

However, the accused did not accept a suggestion that he had told a "careful and artfully constructed series of lies" to construct a defence for beating Mr Wilkin to death with a rock.

The accused rejected a further suggestion that he had told lies about where the assault happened to disguise how much thought he had put into what to do with Mr Wilkin's body. He rejected the suggestion that he had come to a "considered response" that he would drive to Sliabh Liag and put him over the cliffs.

Mr Vial told the court in his direct evidence on Monday that he was fighting with the deceased in a car on Roshine Road between Killybegs and Sliabh Liag following a day of heavy drinking. He said Mr Wilkin punched him three to four times in the face before Mr Vial grabbed and held Mr Wilkin's wrists.

He said that was when Ms Burns appeared at the passenger front door and twice struck Mr Wilkin on the back of the head with a rock, causing him to stop breathing.

When asked by his counsel why he did not tell gardaí "she did it, not me," Mr Vial replied: "I was trying to protect Nikita, because I had feelings for her."

In his evidence on Tuesday, he said Ms Burns definitely struck the deceased twice but he could not be sure if she had delivered a third blow.

Mr Vial said he drove to Sliabh Liag with Ms Burns in the passenger seat while Mr Wilkin lay with his legs over the centre console and the top half of his body in the back seat.

He denied striking Mr Wilkin with the rock or any weapon and said he did not know what Ms Burns was going to do and did not ask her to strike the deceased.

Mr Vial also accepted that after putting Mr Wilkin over the cliff, he went to Teelin Pier to wash the deceased's blood from his clothes and hands. He agreed that he wanted to get rid of evidence tying him to Mr Wilkin's death and that he threw the shirt he had been wearing "to the tide".

Mr Vial accepted that he lied to gardaí about what he had been wearing at the time and he agreed that a blue shirt that was found by searchers at sea was the one he had discarded.

The jury had been expecting Mr Vial to be further cross-examined on CCTV footage of his movements on the day Mr Wilkin died, but Mr Justice Paul McDermott told them a legal issue had arisen which will "delay matters somewhat".

The jury of seven women and five men will return on Wednesday.