Family 'tried to save schoolboy'

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

The family of Michael McIlveen tried to save his life when he arrived home after being attacked.

His family initially thought he was drunk. He was sick twice and started shaking in his bedroom, a court heard.

The jury trial of five people charged with the murder of the Ballymena schoolboy heard evidence from Michael's uncle, Sean McIlveen.

Michael's sister fled Antrim Crown Court in tears as a statement from the deceased's uncle was read to the court.

In the statement Mr McIlveen said that when Michael returned home in the early hours of Sunday, 7 May, 2006, his speech was slurred and he was sick twice, once in the bathroom and again in the top bunk of his bed.

His uncle, who was sleeping in the bottom bunk, said Michael had woken him up when he came into the bedroom and turned on the light.

Mr McIlveen said he noticed a cut on his nephew's hand and heard him telling a friend on his mobile phone that he was "OK".

However, moments later the witness called his sister, Gina McIlveen, the mother of the deceased, into the room but Michael was "pushing away any attempt to help him".

Mr McIlveen told police he took a video on his mobile phone of his nephew because "I thought he was drunk and I was going to show it to him the next day", but events quickly took a turn for the worst when the teenager started to "shake and kick out with his feet".

The witness said it was only when a girl called Michael's mobile and told them of the attack that they "thought there may be something more wrong with him other than being drunk".

Paramedics

Mr McIlveen told police he noticed a bruise under his nephew's eye and an ambulance was called. Paramedics worked "for a good while" on the fatally injured boy before he was taken to Antrim Area Hospital.

The witness said in his statement that a decision was made at 1700 BST on the Monday afternoon - just over 24 hours after Michael was beaten and kicked in an alleyway close to Ballymena's town centre - to turn off his life support machine.

Evidence was also heard from paramedics who treated the deceased at his family home in Ballymena.

They arrived at the house at about 0230 BST on the Sunday and were told by Gina McIlveen that her son had been hit over the head with a baseball bat and had staggered home.

They found him lying on the bedroom floor on his back, "breathing but unconscious."

Floral tributes to Michael were left at the scene of his attack

The jury also heard from a neighbour, Keith Miskella, who had spoken to Michael McIlveen in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Mr Miskella said the deceased had arrived at his door with three other people and that "he had blood on his nose and he was very unsteady on his feet. He seemed to be drunk. He looked like he was in a fight".

The witness also told the court that the schoolboy had told him "he had been fighting or had been jumped by Kerr Bear (the nickname of one of the defendants, 22-year-old Christopher Francis Kerr, of Carnduff Drive in Ballymena) and some boys".

During a cross examination by defence lawyers, it was put to Mr Miskella that because the teenager was "mumbling" he could have said that he was fighting and then got jumped.

The witness replied: "I'm not 100 per cent sure. It might have been".

On Wednesday, Mr Kerr's aunt, Valerie Lamont, told the court that she had been at her nephew's home on the Sunday afternoon, about 15 hours after Michael McIlveen was attacked.

She said Mr Kerr made a telephone call to the house and told her that "someone would be calling at the house to get something" and they would be getting it "from the bedroom".

Mrs Lamont told the jury "just in a matter of minutes the place was full of police" and they searched the house, in particular Kerr's bedroom, taking away "lots of stuff in bags."

During a cross examination by Laurence McCrudden QC, who is defending Mr Kerr, Mrs Lamont confirmed that her nephew had been attacked at "the top of the town" - an area that has been referred to during the trial as the Catholic end of town - on Easter 2005.

She added: "I don't know the details but he was badly hurt. He was beaten. He had staples in his head and had a broken leg."

She also said it was "fair" to say Kerr had "run about with Catholic youths of the town and then started to run with Protestants" and that "half his family is Catholic".

Five people deny murdering Michael McIlveen on 8 May, 2006.

A 20-year-old has already pleaded guilty to the murder and is awaiting sentence.

The case continues.