By Eoin Reynolds
The sister of Robin Wilkin has said she feels overwhelmed by the lack of remorse shown by her brother’s “cold, calculating” murderers and by the way they dumped his body over Ireland’s tallest cliffs “as if his life was worthless”.
Alan Vial and Nikita Burns were found guilty of 66-year-old Mr Wilkin’s murder on Thursday and today Mr Justice Paul McDermott sentenced both to the mandatory term of life imprisonment.
Irene McAleer, sister of the deceased, sat through the entire trial and today delivered a statement on behalf of herself and her surviving siblings, David and Marie.
Robin was the eldest sibling, she said, and the rest of the family looked up to him. “Now, as a family, we have been left with nothing but memories of growing up together with Robin, due to the actions of Alan Vial and Nikita Burns.”
She said the “agonising journey” from when a garda called to say they believed Robin and been murdered to the end of the trial has been “filled with grief, denial and undoubtedly anger”.
While the convictions have brought “a certain degree of closure”, she added that the family will never come to terms with the brutal nature of Robin’s death.
Ms McAleer said she felt she owed it to her brother’s memory to sit through the trial, despite the distress she felt.
She added: “Nothing or no one could have prepared me for the evil and harrowing details I have witnessed. To sit in the same room as those two very cold, calculating individuals has been so difficult. The fact neither of these individuals has shown a grain of remorse has been very overwhelming at times.”
She was sickened, she said, when she heard that Burns had said she hoped the body would not be found and that the victim’s family “wouldn’t bother to come looking for him”. She was further upset when she heard Vial “mocking” her brother, by declaring during one of his garda interviews it was ironic that Robin had said he wanted to be buried at sea.
Ms McAleer denied that her brother was estranged from his family. “He was, in fact, just travelling his own path and lost regular touch with us, as many siblings do. Robin’s callous and unnecessary murder has deprived us all the chance to reconnect now that our own lives are slowing down.”
Ms McAleer also thanked the gardai and witnesses who came forward to give evidence at the trial. In particular, she thanked Chris Quinn and Sharon O’Dowd, who told gardai that Nikita Burns had confessed to murdering a man and throwing him off the cliffs at Sliabh Liag.
Without them, she said, Burns and Vial would never have been caught and prosecuted.
Following Ms McAleer’s statement, Mr Justice Paul McDermott offered his condolences to the family before imposing the mandatory life sentences in respect of each defendant. Vial’s sentence was backdated to July 14, 2023 when he first went into custody. Burns’ sentence was backdated to August 29, 2023.
Vial (39), from Drumanoo Head, Killybegs and Burns (23), of Carrick, Co Donegal had pleaded not guilty to Mr Wilkin’s murder in Donegal on June 25, 2023. A jury found each guilty of murder by majority, ten to two, verdicts yesterday following a two-month trial.
The trial heard that Mr Wilkin suffered severe head injuries after being struck multiple times with a rock at an area known as Roshin, near Killybegs. His killers then drove to Sliabh Liag where they put him over the cliffs and disposed of his neck chain, watch and other personal items.
Vial and Burns blamed one another for the fatal assault but the jury accepted the prosecution case that they had, in fact, been involved in a joint enterprise to cause serious injury to Mr Wilkin and are both guilty of murder.
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