Second loyalist admits to the killing of man who died nine years after sectarian attack

A SECOND man has admitted his involvement in the killing of a Catholic civil servant who was attacked by a loyalist mob.

Paul McCauley died in June 2015, nine years after the sectarian assault left him in a coma.

Matthew Brian Gillon, who was initially accused of murder, yesterday pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of the 38-year-old father-of-one.

Gillon (31), of Bond Street in the Waterside area of Londonderry, also pleaded guilty to attacking two of Mr McCauley’s friends who were also injured when a gang of loyalist thugs stormed the barbecue they were attending at Chapel Road in the Waterside on July 16, 2006.

Gillon was remanded in cusWhen

Victim: Paul McCauley

tody to be sentenced in November along with co-accused Piper John McClements (28), from the Fountain estate, who had pleaded guilty on Wednesday to Mr McCauley’s murder

the non-jury trial resumed yesterday morning in Belfast, prosecution QC Ciaran Murphy asked trial judge Mr Justice Colton for permission to amend the indictment “by agreement” with the addition of a fourth count.

Defence QC Turlough Montague then applied for Gillon to be rearraigned on the first two counts on the indictment, and the new fourth count.

When the murder charge was put to Gillon, he replied: “Not guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter.”

He then pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to one of Mr McCauley’s friends, and causing a second friend actual bodily harm.

Mr Justice Colton was told by Mr Murphy that he “had had the opportunity of taking instructions” and that Gillon’s guilty pleas satisfied the requirements of the indictment, and in the circumstances asked for the original murder charge in his case to remain on the books.

The case was adjourned for pre-sentence reports until next month, when a tariff hearing on the life sentence faced by McClements will also be heard.

However, Mr Justice Colton indicated, “in ease of Mr McCauley’s family”, that he would not pass sentence then.

McClements’ case is further complicated in being one of the first of its kind in Northern Ireland, as he has already served a jail term under his former name of Daryl Proctor in relation to the attack on Mr McCauley that left him in a coma.

Mr Justice Colton said he would want to take time to consider legal submissions in the case before passing sentence.