Murder accused must cycle nine miles a week for bail, judge rules
Brothers charged with killing lose bid to reduce number of times they report to police
TWO north Antrim brothers accused of battering a co-accused’s love rival to death will have to cycle nine miles a week to sign bail, a judge ordered yesterday.
While District Judge Peter King varied the bail address for Brian and Stephen Mccook, from Londonderry to Omagh, he refused a defence application to change a condition that they must report to police from three times a week to once.
Having heard the brothers do not have a car but have bicycles to make the three mile round trip to Omagh station and back, the Coleraine Magistrates Court judge, sitting in Ballymena, commented that with the weather improving, “they don’t have to tramp through snow-covered streets”.
Brian Mccook (23) and his brother Stephen Mccook (28), both from the Urbal Road in Dervock, are jointly accused with David Austin (54) of the murder of Steven Peck last January.
In addition Brian Mccook is further charged with threatening to kill two “key witnesses” — Mr Austin’s wife and a cousin of the Mccooks. Also charged with involvement in the killing is the Mccooks’ mother Easther McCook (46) and their sister Lisa Gemmell (29).
Easther Mccook is charged with providing a false alibi and interfering with witnesses “with intent to impede a murder investigation”. Gemmell, from Union Street in Ballymoney, is alleged to have perverted justice by destroying evidence.
Previous courts have heard it is the police case that Austin, from Cherry Gardens in Ballymoney, discovered Mr Peck (33) was having an affair with his wife, so Austin and the Mccook brothers hatched a plan to lure their alleged victim to the Glarryford Road in Ballymoney on the pretence that he was meeting Mrs Austin.
Instead, he was subjected to what a detective described as a “vicious beating” on January 3 before being left lying “basically to die”.
Due to his injuries, Mr Peck died six days after the assault near the Joey Dunlop Leisure Centre. During yesterday’s contested bail applications, Detective Constable Mailey claimed the brothers had been “instrumental in planning the attack on a wholly innocent man”.
“We feel it’s necessary to have frequent monitoring,” said the officer, but defence counsellors Alan Stewart and Michael Smyth both submitted that the electronic tags they wear “tell the police seven days a week” where the defendants are as opposed to the “two minutes it takes to sign a piece of paper” in a police station.
They argued that while the cycling “may be good for their physical health,” the police objections could be perceived as “some form of punishment or inconvenience” for the brothers.
Varying the bail address but not the signing requirement, DJ King said given the charge they face, “on one reading of the papers they’re fortunate to be on bail — period”.
“This is not a police requirement to cause them inconvenience, it’s a police requirement to fix them at a period of time,” said the judge. He adjourned the case to March 29.