Man charged with IRA murder

Published on Wednesday 11 November 2009 21:47

A MAN has been charged with the murder of undercover British Army officer Robert Nairac in Northern Ireland more than 30 years ago.

Kevin Crilly, 59, is already facing charges of kidnapping and falsely imprisoning the 29-year-old Grenadier Guardsman near the Irish border in 1977.

The captain, originally from Gloucestershire, was interrogated, tortured and then shot dead by the IRA after being snatched from a pub car park near Jonesborough and driven to a field at Ravensdale, Co Louth. His body has never been found.

Prosecutors laid the murder charge before Crilly, from Jonesborough, Co Armagh, as he appeared at Newry Magistrates' Court for a routine bail hearing on the two lesser counts, with which he was charged last year.

He has been ordered to remain in custody.

In the years after Captain Nairac's 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 fled to the United States.

The court was told yesterday that Crilly had remained in the US for almost 30 years.