Boy denies framing murder accused

Michael McIlveen died after being attacked by a gang in May 2006

A defence lawyer at the Michael McIlveen murder trial has accused a witness of trying to frame defendants.

The teenager had gone all out to "really deliver the goods to the police... they were going down," the lawyer suggested in court on Tuesday.

Mervyn Wilson Moon, 20, from Douglas Terrace, has admitted murdering the Catholic schoolboy in May 2006.

Four adults and a juvenile face murder charges and one other youth faces a lesser charge.

"You were prepared to give the name of anyone who was in that alleyway that night," the lawyer told the witness.

He was speaking in defence of Christopher Francis Kerr, 22, of Carnduff Drive, Ballymena.

The lawyer told Antrim Crown Court on Tuesday that despite the witness's evidence that Michael McIlveen had been kicked more than 60 times by those accused, there were few marks on the boy's body.

The injuries were to the skull and caused by a baseball bat wielded by Mr Moon who has already pleaded guilty to murder and will be sentenced at the end of the trial.

The witness replied: "I was there and he wasn't. I'm not blind."

The trial continues