Hit-and-run driver convicted

Hit-and-run driver convicted

Debbie McComb, 15, was killed on the Springfield Road in Belfast

A man has been convicted of causing the death by dangerous driving of a west Belfast girl last year.

Belfast man Henry Christopher Marley, 20, from Colinward Street, had denied being the driver who ran down and killed Debbie McComb on the Springfield Road in a stolen car.

However, a Crown Court jury of seven men and five women sitting in Dungannon in County Tyrone found him guilty on Thursday.

During the seven-day trial, the court heard from several witnesses that Debbie, 15, had been flung into the air before landing on the car bonnet.

The jury was told Marley had tried to get an alibi and had also claimed he was in his girlfriend's house at the time of the incident.

However, two witnesses identified Marley as the driver in the moments before and after Debbie was killed.

He admitted stealing a car in Newry, County Down, on 1 March last year.

This trial coinciding along with the first anniversary of the death of our 15-year-old daughter Debbie, has been a nightmare to sit through

McComb family

During the trial, the court heard evidence from Paul May, a friend of the accused.

He said he had initially agreed to say he had been with him on the night of the killing, but when approached by the police he declined to give an alibi.

The jury convicted Marley on a 10 to two majority.

They also convicted him of a second charge of dangerous driving the same night when he collided with a police Land Rover after driving straight at it minutes before he broke a red light and ploughed into Debbie.

'Not happy'

Marley has been remanded in custody to await sentence while social inquiry reports on him are prepared.

In a statement, Debbie's family said: "This trial coinciding along with the first anniversary of the death of our 15-year-old daughter Debbie, has been a nightmare to sit through.

"We had to listen over and over again how our Debbie was killed as each witness repeated their version of the pointless death of our 15-year-old daughter - how she was flung into the air by the impact of the car and landed on the bonnet only to be drove from side to side by Marley in his attempt to dislodge her.

Debbie's father Jim described the hearing was "a living hell"

"We are not happy - we should not have been put through this."

The statement was released through the campaign group, Families Bereaved Through Car Crime.

Debbie's father Jim described the week-long hearing as "a living hell".

Welcoming the verdict, Debbie's brother, also named Jim, said they and the other seven families from the Families Bereaved Through Car Crime, were now calling for Marley to be given the maximum sentence of 10 years.

He said the trial "had been a hard time" for the family, but that "in the end we got justice for Debbie and that's what we were looking for".

Marley has 58 previous motoring offences, including leaving the scene of an accident where others were injured.

He will be sentenced along with his former co-accused - 20-year-old Neal Francis Blaney from Springfield Park in Belfast, who admitted stealing the car in Newry with Marley and a second vehicle from a Newtownabbey shopping centre on the same day.