Gruesome Knife Murderer Jailed

A judge has branded a killer's actions as being "amongst the most gruesome murders of the past 40 years in Northern Ireland".

Jailing 28-year-old Steven Leslie Brown, also known as Steven Revels, for at least 30 years for the murders of two teenagers in Co Armagh nine years ago, Mr Justice Gillen, said that having watched him give evidence, he had "no doubt whatsoever" that he had seen a man "whose hands had been engaged in the executions of these two young victims".

Brown murdered teenagers David McIlwaine and Andrew Robb in February 2000.

The trial had been told that Andrew Robb, 19, and David McIlwaine, 18, were drinking with Brown, Burcombe and Noel Dillon, who has since killed himself.

Andrew Robb is said to have made disparaging remarks about Richard Jameson, the alleged UVF commander, gunned down by the LVF two weeks previously, and this sparked the brutal assault.

The badly-mutilated bodies of the two teenagers were discovered on an isolated country road close to Tandragee, Co Armagh in February 2000.

They were found lying on the blood-spattered road with their throats cut and severe stab wounds to their stomachs.

Burcombe, who was once a co-accused of Brown but turned 'Queen's evidence', recounted to the trial how he saw Brown repeatedly drive the knife into David McIlwaine as he lay wheezing and prone on the ground.

Burcombe, from Ballynahinch Road in Lisburn, was initially charged with the murders, but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge after agreeing to give evidence against Brown.

He was jailed in 2008 for two-and-a-half-years.

In other court news today, the sentencing of seven men convicted in connection with the killing of a Ballymena schoolboy has been adjourned indefinitely.

Sitting at Antrim Crown Court Judge Mr Justice Seamus Tracey said his decision was due to "the huge volume of material" put before him by the lawyers for the seven defendants.

In February, three men from the town were found guilty of the sectarian murder of Michael McIlveen while the others were guilty of lesser, but connected charges.

The 15-year-old was beaten to death in the Co Antrim town in May 2006.

(BMcC)