by Eoin Reynolds
A woman on trial accused of murdering a pensioner who was “put over” Ireland’s highest sea cliffs told a friend that she had “battered” a man with a rock “until his face was out the back of his head” and that she liked it, the Central Criminal Court heard today.
The trial also heard a recording of a separate phone call in which the accused woman, Nikita Burns, said that after a fight with the deceased Robert ‘Robin’ Wilkin, she and her co-accused Alan Vial drove until 3am and “pushed him [Mr Wilkin] off Sliabh Liag”. She said, “they won’t find him,” but added that there was blood on the roof of the car in which the alleged assault took place. She added: “There is a slim chance we’ll get caught for it but if I go down, I go down.”
Ms Burns (23) of Carrick, Co Donegal and Alan Vial (39) of Drumanoo Head, Killybegs, have pleaded not guilty to the murder of 66-year-old Robert ‘Robin’ Wilkin on June 25, 2023 in Donegal. Mr Wilkin’s body was found one week later in the water below the Sliabh Liag cliffs.
Ms Burns pleaded guilty to impeding the apprehension or prosecution of another person for an arrestable offence but the prosecution did not accept her plea.
Chris Quinn today told prosecution counsel Bernard Condon SC that Ms Burns seemed “panicky and deranged” when she knocked on his door around midnight on the night after the alleged murder. Ms Burns had previously been staying at Mr Quinn’s apartment but had moved out a week or two earlier.
Mr Quinn said Ms Burns repeatedly told him that she was a “murderer” before saying out loud, with two other people present, that she was “after murdering someone”. She described how she and her co-accused were driving with another man in the car when the two men started fighting.
Mr Quinn said the accused told him that either she or Mr Vial got a rock from somewhere along the road and she hit the man with the rock in his face. Mr Quinn recalled her saying that she “battered him in the face with the rock and she liked it”. He added that she “didn’t seem to care that much” and after telling her story, asked for some of Mr Quinn’s antidepressant or antipsychotic medication before eating a chicken curry.
Mr Quinn said he went to bed and could hear laughter from the room where Ms Burns and the two other men were sitting.
Under cross-examination, Mr Quinn confirmed to Alan Vial’s defence counsel Shane Costelloe SC that Ms Burns said she “battered the fella until his face was out the back of his head. Then she said she liked it.”
Sharon O’Dowd told Mr Condon that she spoke on the phone that night with one of the men who was in Ms Burns’s company in Mr Quinn’s apartment when Ms Burns took the phone and began talking.
Ms O’Dowd recalled the accused telling her that she “beat some man’s head in, her and Alan”. The witness decided she needed a recording of what Ms Burns was saying so she called her son to record the conversation on his mobile phone.
The recording was played to the court today in which Ms Burns could be heard saying that she and Mr Vial picked up a rock.
She said Mr Wilkin had been “fighting with us” and that he was “touching up my legs and doing whatever to me and that’s why Alan got pissed and dragged him out the back and started caving his head in.”
Ms Burns said this happened “a wee bit outside Killybegs” and afterwards they drove until 3am “and we pushed him off Sliabh Liag.” She later said: “They won’t find him, he was thrown off Sliabh Liag, they won’t find him.”
As the phone conversation continued, Ms Burns said Mr Vial had been arrested later that evening for drink driving after crashing the car. She said: “His [Mr Wilkin’s] blood is on the roof. There’s a slim chance we’ll get caught for it but if I go down for it, I go down.”
Ms O’Dowd told Ms Burns’s defence counsel Eoin Lawlor SC that she recorded the conversation because Ms Burns is a vulnerable person and she thought she “was in a situation”. She recalled Ms Burns telling her that Mr Wilkin had been driving with Mr Vial in the back seat. She said that Mr Vial began throwing punches at Mr Wilkin from behind before Mr Vial got out of the car and got a rock.
She agreed with Mr Lawlor that Ms Burns appeared to say that after Mr Vial retrieved the rock, Ms Burns got another rock and came round to the driver’s side of the car. She recalled Ms Burns saying that Mr Vial then dragged Mr Wilkin to the back seat and that there was “more fighting”.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of five men and seven women.
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