A man and a woman have been found guilty of the murder of a 66-year-old man in Co Donegal in the summer of 2023.
Robert 'Robin' Wilkin was hit on the head with a rock and thrown off the Sliabh Liag cliffs.
Alan Vial, 39, of Drumanoo Head in Killybegs and 24-year-old Nikita Burns from An Charraig in Co Donegal, both pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Wilkin on 25 June 2023.
Each subsequently claimed the other did it but the jury found both had engaged in a joint enterprise.
Originally from Co Tyrone, Mr Wilkin was a transient person who at the time of his death seemed to have moved in with Vial in Killybegs.
Burns also spent some time there.
On the night of Saturday 24 June 2023, the three had been out drinking in two pubs in Killybegs and Dunkineely in Co Donegal, and then drove off in a Volkswagen Passat car in the early hours of the following morning.
Sometime between 2am and 2.15am that Sunday, 25 June 2023, the car stopped at Roshine between Killybegs and Ardara and Mr Wilkin was violently assaulted.
He was hit on the head with a rock, before he was driven to the top of the Sliabh Liag cliffs and his body was thrown off.
It was recovered from the water below a week later.
Burns and Vial had driven up and back to the cliffs a number of times that Sunday and the Passat was captured on CCTV.
The car was cleaned at Vial's brother’s house in Ardara, but Vial crashed it later that evening and was arrested for drunk driving.
Later that evening, Burns made a number of admissions to other people about her involvement in the murder and gardaí were alerted.
Mr Wilkin's blood was subsequently found in the car, on a pair of Burns' leggings and on a pair of boots found in Vial’s home.
Mr Wilkin's phone was also found there.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Blood was found on and in a vacuum cleaner, on a white blanket and on a grey jumper which was recovered halfway down the cliffs.
Glasses, a silver chain and a blood-stained rock were found at the top of Sliabh Liag, which the State Pathologist found was consistent with having caused two head injuries found on Mr Wilkin.
Vial testified that Mr Wilkin had been driving the car, but when he told him to drop down a gear because the car was shaking, Mr Wilkin stopped the car and punched him several times in the face.
Vial said he grabbed his wrists to stop him punching him and Burns appeared at the front passenger door and struck Mr Wilkin twice in the back of the head, causing him to stop breathing.
Burns denied murder and denied striking Mr Wilkin at any point. However, she admitted in garda interviews that she had helped clean the car.
Vial also denied murder but accepted in his evidence during the trial that he helped dispose of the body.
The jury of five men and seven women deliberated for more than eight hours over the past four days and found Vial and Burns guilty by a 10-2 majority
Both will be sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment at a sentencing hearing tomorrow when members of the victim's family will also be invited to make a statement to the court.
