Nairac murder suspect back in court
A man suspected of killing a British undercover soldier in the North more than 30 years ago appeared in court today.
Kevin Crilly, 59, fled to America in the weeks after Captain Robert Nairac was executed by an IRA interrogation gang in May 1977.
He wore glasses and a dark leather jacket during a two-minute appearance in the dock at Newry Magistrates’ Court, Co Down, flanked by prison guards.
Magistrate Paul Copeland heard prosecutors had agreed to a two-week remand on continuing bail.
He told the defendant: “On December 2 you are due back in court and the matter will be reviewed on that date.”
Crilly remained in America for nearly three decades until he returned to his home town of Jonesborough, Co Armagh, using a different name.
But, aided by a TV documentary investigation, detectives tracked him down and last year arrested and charged him with kidnapping and falsely imprisoning the 29-year-old Grenadier Guardsman.
Last week, at a routine bail hearing at Newry courthouse, prosecutors told the red-headed Crilly, from Lower Foughill Road, that he would now face a murder charge.
Captain Nairac, originally from Gloucestershire, was questioned, tortured and then shot dead after being snatched from the car park of the Three Steps Inn at Drumintee outside Jonesborough and driven across the border to an isolated field at Ravensdale, Co Louth.
His remains have never been found amid claims from former IRA members that the body was disposed of at a local meat processing plant to hide the terrible injuries he suffered before death.
In the years after his disappearance, three men were convicted of his murder, but police have always said they were looking for more suspects.
Crilly was interviewed by detectives in the weeks after the incident but flew to the United States before officers could arrest him on suspicion of murder.
