A man accused of murdering a pensioner whose body was found at the foot of Ireland’s tallest cliffs told gardaí that the discovery was ironic, as the deceased “always wanted to be buried at sea”.
The accused man Alan Vial (39) also told gardaí that 66-year-old Robert ‘Robin’ Wilkin’s body being found in the sea below the Sliabh Liag cliffs in Donegal was “a bit sad”.
Mr Vial denied that he battered Mr Wilkin’s head in with a rock or that he threw him off the cliffs, insisting that the deceased was alive and breathing when he left him, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
Mr Vial told gardaí he had little memory of what happened but recalled having a fight with Mr Wilkin. He said his co-accused, Nikita Burns (23), had a rock but he couldn’t remember how Mr Wilkin had suffered fractures to his head. “I just noticed that he had serious injuries to his skull,” Mr Vial said.
He told gardaí that the fight happened at Sliabh Liag near a viewing point over the sea in the early hours of the morning. He described hitting Mr Wilkin on the nose with his palm, causing him to bleed all over the Volkswagen Passat in which they had been travelling. When the fight continued outside the car, he said he “winded” Mr Wilkin by striking him in the stomach and then placed the pensioner over a fence about four metres from the edge of the cliff.
Mr Vial said the 66-year-old was lying down winded but still breathing when he left but could have “rolled over the edge”.
Ms Burns of Carrick, Co Donegal, and Mr Vial of Drumanoo Head, Killybegs, Co Donegal, have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Wilkin on June 25th, 2023, in Donegal. Mr Wilkin’s body was found eight days later in the water below the Sliabh Liag cliffs.
Sgt Gráinne McLoone told prosecution counsel Emmet Nolan that Mr Vial was arrested on suspicion of murder on June 27th, 2023, and interviewed at Ballyshannon Garda station.
She agreed that Mr Vial told detectives he was driving around various parts of Donegal with Mr Wilkin and Ms Burns when they decided to go to Sliabh Liag at about 9.30pm. He said he got out of the car, leaving Ms Burns with Mr Wilkin but when he returned to the car he heard Ms Burns crying “stop” and saw Mr Wilkin trying to take her top off.
He described a fight which ended with Mr Vial putting Mr Wilkin over the fence near the cliff and driving off. He said that Ms Burns “wasn’t involved in the altercation, she didn’t assault anyone”.
After some time, Mr Vial said he returned to the cliff to see if he could find Mr Wilkin but came to the conclusion that he must have walked to a nearby pub or to a friend’s house.
When CCTV contradicted Mr Vial’s timeline, he accepted that he had made mistakes but denied lying. He repeated that Mr Wilkin was breathing when he last saw him.
He described the discovery of Mr Wilkin’s body in the sea below the cliffs as “a bit sad”. He added: “Ironically, he always wanted to be buried at sea, he was a skipper of a boat at one stage.”
Mr Vial accepted that he and Ms Burns had cleaned and vacuumed blood from the Passat but denied he was trying to destroy evidence. He said the blood had come from Mr Wilkin’s nose during the fight.
When it was put to him that Ms Burns had described Mr Vial “battering his [Mr Wilkin’s] brains in” with a rock, he replied: “I didn’t batter his brains in.” He denied using a rock or any implement and said he is “not sure” why Ms Burns would make that up.
“When I placed him over the side of the fence, he was alive and breathing. It’s Nikita’s word against mine,” he said.
In a later interview, he said he could recall Ms Burns striking Mr Wilkin but he said he didn’t know if she used an implement and couldn’t remember if she used a rock. He remembered Mr Wilkin lying in the Passat, bleeding, with a blanket under his head. He said he picked Mr Wilkin up under the arms, brought him to the fence and put him over it. Mr Wilkin had “severe fractures to his head,” he said, but he was still breathing.
A rock that had blood with DNA matching that of Mr Wilkin was shown to Mr Vial. He denied using the rock to strike Mr Wilkin, saying they had used it in an effort to prevent him from rolling.
Gardaí put it to Mr Vial that he had killed Mr Wilkin and that Ms Burns had helped. He denied killing him, said it “definitely” wasn’t an intentional murder and when asked if it was an accident, he replied: “It wasn’t my original intention.”
He added: “He [Mr Wilkin] just went ballistic. I don’t know what he expected to happen. He molested Nikita, I asked him to stop and he wouldn’t stop.” He said Mr Wilkin had tried to “feel her up” several times that night but added: “Neither of us intended for him to die.”
The trial continues this Thursday before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of seven women and five men.
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