Murder trial shown CCTV footage of car's movements

The trial of a man and woman accused of the murder of County Tyrone man Robert Wilkin has been shown CCTV footage of the night the prosecution say he was killed.

Alan Vial, 39, of Drumanoo Head, Killybegs, County Donegal, and Nikita Burns, 23, from An Charraig, County Donegal, both deny the murder of Mr Wilkin on 25 June 2023.

The body of Mr Wilkin, who was also known as Robin, was found in the sea at the foot of the Slieve League cliffs.

On Thursday, the jury watched a CCTV montage of what prosecutors say are the defendants' movements on the night of the killing.

Prosecutors say the footage shows the movements of the two accused with Mr Wilkin in a Volkswagen Passat car on the night of 24 June 2023 and in the early hours of the following day.

It is the State's case that they left McIntyre's Bar in Dunkineely at about 01:30 and travelled in the car to Roshine, which is an area of Donegal about nine miles away.

In his opening address, a prosecutor said that this was most likely the place where Mr Wilkin was assaulted, although he said the accused gave different accounts

He said the car was seen on CCTV at 02:20 passing the ranger's hut at Slieve League travelling towards the top of the cliffs.

Around 38 minutes later, the car came back down at which point, the prosecution allege, Mr Wilkin had been put over the cliff.

The court was shown further clips by a garda (Irish police) officer, Sgt Gallagher.

In one, the Passat car is seen travelling in the direction of Killybegs in the early hours of 25 June 25 at 01:34 local time and arriving at the Roshine Road at 01:46.

The vehicle goes off camera around this time and does not appear again until 02:01.

The car arrives at the ranger's hut and carpark at Slieve League at 02:20 that morning and proceeds towards a closed gate.

The vehicle can be seen hitting a cone on the road.

Sgt Gallagher said the car had to stop for a number of moments for someone to get out and open the gate.

"You can see some shadows in the lights of the car," he added.

The witness said the car moves off again and makes its way towards the summit, passing a number of bends at 02:22.

He said the summit car park had no CCTV cameras and the car goes out of shot at this time.

A further clip timed at 02:58 showed the car coming back and passing the Slieve League visitor centre at 03:06.

The car then "journeys back" to Killybegs, the prosecutor said, arriving on the main street in Killybegs at 03:49.

It is seen again arriving at the Slieve league car park at 05:33.

Sgt Gallagher said it car returned from the summit 22 minutes later at 05:55 passing the ranger's hut and car park.

The gate into the car park is left open and the car continues down, said the witness, and the vehicle then continues in the direction of Mr Vial's residence.

The trial continues.