Killer of schoolboy Thomas Devlin remains critical in hospital after ‘suicide bid’

A SECTARIAN killer was rushed to hospital after reportedly making a suicide attempt.

Nigel Brown (33), who is serving a 20-year sentence for the 2005 murder of schoolboy Thomas Devlin in north Belfast, is said to have been discovered by other inmates at the maximum-security Maghaberry prison.

Brown tried to end his own life one week ago, the Sunday Life reported.

The newspaper said he was in a critical condition in hospital.

A source at Maghaberry claimed that Brown is amongst the most hated inmates on his wing.

He said: “A prisoner found him at the start of the week and raised the alarm. The doctors arrived a short time later and they took Brown away.

“Nigel Brown is one of the most hated men in the prison.

“He hardly leaves his cell due to the amount of hidings he has got for murdering that wee lad Devlin.”

When contacted, the Department of Justice declined to comment, saying it does not talk about individual cases.

Brown has spent the last eight years behind bars for his part in a murder which shocked Northern Ireland.

Thomas Devlin and (right) Nigel Brown, one of two convicted over his killing

In 2010 he and his accomplice, Gary Taylor, were found guilty of killing Thomas Devlin.

Thomas (15) was knifed to death near his north Belfast

home on August 10, 2005. He suffered multiple stab wounds to the chest, abdomen, right upper arm, hip and face. His friend, Jonathan McKee, was also at- tacked and was stabbed in the stomach.

Taylor (now 30), of Mountcollyer Avenue, Belfast, and Brown (33), from Whitewell Road in the city, were both convicted in 2010 of murder and attempted murder.

The victims had been walking back home with a third teenager, Fintan Maguire, from a shop, when the killers struck on the Somerton Road.

Brown and Taylor have been behind bars since 2010.

Brown, who is housed in a non-paramilitary wing at Maghaberry, is said to be despised by his fellow inmates and has been subjected to frequent attacks and assaults.

Isolated from the rest of the prisoners for his own protection, he was rarely seen outside of his own cell.

A source at the prison reported that Brown was discovered barely breathing last Monday.

Emergency services were called to his cell where he was given first aid before being transferred to hospital. Brown is expected to be returned to Maghaberry once doctors deem him fit enough, where he will serve out the remainder of his sentence.

Jailing Brown and Taylor in 2010, a judge said it “was a murder which completely shocked this entire community, but especially the community of north Belfast”.