by Eoin Reynolds
A man has taken the stand in his own defence to tell his murder trial that he was fighting with a pensioner – whose body was found in the waters beneath Sliabh Liag – when his former lover and co-accused hit the victim on the back of the head with a rock, causing him to stop breathing.
Alan Vial (39) said that he lied in his garda interviews and didn’t reveal what he now alleges Nikita Burns (23) had done because he was “trying to protect Nikita, because I had feelings for her”.
He accepted that after he noticed that Mr Wilkin was not breathing, he drove to Sliabh Liag “to get rid of the body” but he couldn’t remember whose idea it was to put Mr Wilkin over the cliffs. He said that Ms Burns took money from the dead man’s pocket before they both carried him towards a fence, Mr Vial holding the head with Ms Burns holding the feet.
He said: “We got him up onto the fence and then we dropped him to the other side and he rolled from there off the edge of the cliff.”
Mr Vial said he did not know Ms Burns was going to use a rock to strike Mr Wilkin and did not ask her or want her to hit him. He said he didn’t encourage her to hit the deceased and did not want Mr Wilkin, who he described as his friend, to die.
Mr Vial will continue his evidence today.
Mr Vial of Drumanoo Head, Killybegs, Co Donegal and Ms Burns of Carrick, Co Donegal, have both pleaded not guilty to the murder of 66-year-old Robert ‘Robin’ Wilkin in Donegal on June 25, 2023.
The Central Criminal Court trial has previously heard that Mr Wilkin’s body was discovered in the sea below the Sliabh Liag cliffs eight days after his alleged murder. A post mortem revealed he had suffered two depressed fractures to the skull that were not in keeping with the injuries sustained in the fall.
Mr Vial today (MON) told his defence counsel Shane Costelloe SC about his background, work history and marriage that ended due to his difficulties with alcohol. He described himself as an alcoholic and after splitting from his wife, he moved into his unfinished house at Drumanoo Head in Killybegs in 2022. The house had electricity but was not plumbed he said.
Mr Vial was living off the jobseekers allowance when he first met Robert Wilkin in a bar in May 2023. When Mr Wilkin told him he was living in his car, Mr Vial offered to let him live at his house if Mr Wilkin, who had experience working with paving, concrete and operating diggers, would work on his garden.
He described Mr Wilkin as six feet tall, weighing about 90 kilos and despite his age he was “very fit”. He had no problem digging out rocks by hand or mixing concrete, Mr Vial said.
When drinking, Mr Wilkin would become aggressive and “his temper would get a bit short,” Mr Vial said. There were occasions when Mr Wilkin demeaned Mr Vial in public, such as by slapping him on the back of the head and speaking down to him.
Other than that, he described their relationship as “pretty good”. He added: “He had some skills that I was eager to learn from him regarding concrete paving and operating machinery.”
They began working together on the house and managed to secure a paving contract worth about €9,000. Every evening they would cook dinner at Drumanoo and did “everything together for pretty much a month”.
Mr Vial met Nikita Burns for the first time in early June when she came with Mr Wilkin to Drumanoo Head for a weekend. She moved into the house at Drumanoo and Mr Vial began a sexual relationship with her. Most evenings after work, he said Nikita, Mr Wilkin and he would have dinner and drink a 12-pack of Coors and maybe a bottle of wine.
On Saturday June 24, one day before Mr Wilkin would lose his life, Mr Vial awoke at about noon with Nikita but nobody else in the house. They had breakfast, drank 12 cans of Carlsberg and decided to make the 50-minute walk to Killybegs.
They met Mr Wilkin who drove them to Dunkineely in a Volkswagen Passat they had purchased with the proceeds of the paving contract. They had drinks in three more pubs, finishing in Mac’s Bar at closing time.
They got back into the Passat but there was tension in the car following an argument outside Mac’s. Mr Vial said Mr Wilkin was being aggressive towards him, so the accused got in the back seat while Ms Burns sat in the front.
Nobody spoke until they were driving up a hill on Roshine Road past the Atlantic Dawn factory when Mr Vial suggested that Mr Wilkin go down a gear as the car was vibrating. Mr Wilkin told Mr Vial “not to tell him how to drive and whatnot” and then pulled in near a business titled EK Marine.
Mr Vial said Mr Wilkin told him and Nikita to get out of the car and while Ms Burns got out, Mr Vial refused. He said Mr Wilkin turned around in the front seat and punched him three to four times in his face. Mr Vial said he grabbed Mr Wilkin’s wrists to prevent him striking again.
Their two heads were close together when, he said, Nikita appeared at the passenger side door just as Mr Wilkin’s head came into contact with Mr Vial’s. At first, he said he didn’t know what caused Mr Wilkin’s head to strike his own but then he saw Ms Burns strike Mr Wilkin on the back of the head with a rock, causing him to headbutt Mr Vial again.
Mr Wilkin stopped wrestling, went limp and there was blood coming from a severe wound to the back of his head, Mr Vial said. He said he didn’t do anything to stop the bleeding and as far as he was aware, Mr Wilkin was dead at that point.
He said he doesn’t know how he felt, described it as “a bit of a shock” and said he doesn’t know how to explain it. He said Nikita put the rock into the back seat and got into the passenger seat. Mr Wilkin was in the middle of the car with the top half of his body in the back seat and his feet draped over the centre console. Mr Vial drove to Sliabh Liag but he couldn’t remember any conversation and couldn’t say how they decided to go to the cliffs.
At Sliabh Liag, he said Ms Burns took money from the deceased’s pocket which they later used to buy “weed”. He denied that this was a “robbery gone wrong” and said he had never intended to take money from Mr Wilkin. When they returned to the scene at about 5 o’clock that morning and again at about 3pm that day, he said they wanted to see if the body was visible or “if anyone had noticed anything”. They cleaned the car at Mr Vial’s brother’s home and later that day they crashed the Passat, resulting in Mr Vial being arrested for drunk driving.
He accepted that he lied in his garda interviews when he said Mr Wilkin was alive when they left him at Sliabh Liag. He said he had been trying to “come up with a story that would cover Nikita and myself” during those interviews.
Mr Costelloe asked why he didn’t tell gardai, “she did it, not me.” Mr Vial replied: “I was trying to protect Nikita, because I had feelings for her.”
The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of seven women and five men.
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