Witness 'not under UVF pressure'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/7768403.stm

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The chief witness in a murder trial has denied suggestions that he made up his version of events at the behest of the UVF.

Mark Burcombe was giving evidence against his former friend Steven Brown, also known as Steven Revels.

Mr Brown is accused of killing Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine near Tandragee in February 2000.

Belfast Crown Court heard the UVF was was holding an investigation into the deaths when Mr Burcombe came forward.

Mr Burcombe, of Castle Place in Castlecaulfield, has already admitted being present on the night of the killings.

He was originally charged with murder but agreed to act as a prosecution witness and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm.

He said Steven Brown and another man, Noel Dillon, who is now dead, killed the two teenagers in a shockingly violent knife attack.

During the fourth day of his cross-examination, he explained how he came to the point in 2005 where he decided to give himself up to the police.

This was via a complicated process involving a series of intermediaries including his father, two Christian community workers and Paul McIlwaine, the father of one of the victims.

It happened just days after the BBC broadcast a reconstruction on the killings on its Crimewatch programme.

Mr Burcombe insisted he had not seen the programme, only heard about it, but revealed that he had a series of meetings and conversations in the week following its broadcast, culminating in him handing himself over to the police just under a week later.

In court, it was put to him that this was a version approved by the UVF.

He agreed that, by the time he actually met the police, he had been made aware that the UVF was carrying out its own investigation into the murders and that they "wanted this sorted".

However, he insisted he had decided to come forward without knowing anything of this and that his version of events was the truth and not - as has been suggested - a "pack of lies" approved of by the UVF and designed to frame Steven Brown.

The trial continues.