A 59-year-old man was charged yesterday with the murder of undercover British army officer Robert Nairac in Northern Ireland more than 30 years ago.
District Judge Austin Kennedy granted Kevin Crilly bail but ordered him to remain in custody after crown lawyers indicated they may seek to appeal against the decision in the High Court in Belfast.
In the years after Capt Nairac’s disappearance in 1977, three men were convicted of his murder, but police have always said they were looking for more suspects.
Mr Crilly was interviewed by detectives in the weeks after the incident but went to the US before officers could arrest him on suspicion of murder.
Judge Kennedy was told yesterday that the suspect had remained in the US for almost 30 years.
Investigating officer Det Sgt Barry Graham said that when he returned, he took another name, explaining that Mr Crilly was adopted as a child and had assumed his birth name of Declan Parr.
The officer told the judge that he could connect Mr Crilly with the murder charge and the two other counts of kidnapping and false imprisonment.
Mr Crilly spoke only to acknowledge that he understood the charges.
His defence team objected that the prosecution had given them no prior warning that the murder charge would be put to their client or that they would be objecting to his bail. Noting that Mr Crilly had complied with all bail requirements since his original arrest 18 months ago and pointing out that, at that point, the defendant was aware that the Public Prosecution Service was examining whether there were grounds for charging him with murder, Judge Kennedy rejected the prosecution objection to bail.
The magistrate said any appeal against his decision would have to be lodged within two hours.
He ordered that Mr Crilly be held in the cells until the PPS signalled its intentions.
Capt Nairac was abducted from outside the Three Steps Inn at Drumintee outside Jonesborough, Co Armagh.
His remains have never been found amid claims from former IRA members that his body was disposed of at a local meat processing plant. During the half-hour hearing, Det Sgt Graham said two other suspects in the murder case had fled across the Atlantic at the same time as Mr Crilly.
He said detectives were still attempting to track them down.
Asked why the PPS had decided to pursue the murder charge 18 months after Mr Crilly was accused on the two lesser counts, the officer said: “Since that time, police have continued to investigate and more evidence has been uncovered and the PPS decided the threshold for a murder charge has now been reached,” he said.
Det Sgt Graham said Mr Crilly’s car was seized two weeks after the undercover soldier went missing.
A forensic examination found hair matching Capt Nairac’s inside, he added. – (PA)