Devlin Murder Jury Visits Scene

The jury presiding over the trial of two men accused of murdering north Belfast schoolboy Thomas Devlin have been on a tour of the area.

The 15-year-old (pictured) was allegedly stabbed to death and two of his friends also attacked on the Upper Somerton Road, at the back gates of St Patrick's College.

On Wednesday, the Belfast Crown Court jury of eight men and four women were first driven in a minibus, under an armed police escort, to Ross House in the loyalist Mount Vernon flats complex on the Shore Road.

It was from the flats that the prosecution claim that 26-year-old Nigel James Brown and Gary Ryan Taylor, 23 - who both lived in the complex at the time - set out before the murder on August 10th, 2005.

The jury, carrying a ground-floor plan of the flats, wondered around in front of lawyers and trial judge Mr Justice McLaughlin, checking the location of the lift and stairwell, in addition the position of CCTV cameras which allegedly captured Brown and Taylor leaving the complex.

From there the jury were driven in a circular route along Fortwilliam Park, turning onto the Lansdowne Rd and bringing them out on the Antrim Road, then down along the Antrim Rd, left into Alexandra Park Ave and then left again and back into Fortwilliam Park.

The jury was taken there to give them a better understanding of the area in which the murder took place.

The trial continues.

See: Thomas Devlin Murder Suspect Charged

(BMcC/GK)