A priest said yesterday that the killers of Strabane man Andrew Burns, whose body was found in a roadway in the Co Donegal village of Castlefin on Monday night, were devoid of morals and caught up in their own warped process of thought.
Mr Burns (27), a painter and decorator from Drum Road, Strabane, died from two gunshot wounds to the stomach.
Gardaí investigating his murder believe it was carried out by a dissident republican paramilitary group.
Two years ago Mr Burns was shot in the knees and upper thigh in a so-called punishment shooting in Strabane.
Parish priest Fr Declan Boland told mourners at Mr Burns' funeral in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Strabane yesterday that the deceased's family and friends had been crushed by the manner of his death.
"His only misfortune was to have been caught up with the wrong sort of people," he said.
"Who are the faceless people who carried out this atrocity? What perverted and twisted mindset led them to do it? What did they hope to achieve? How will they try to justify it? Let those who did this evil deed not even dare to give excuses, for murder is always wrong and unjustifiable.
"Those who did it speak for no one and represent no one but themselves and their perverted and twisted mindsets," he added.
Fr Boland said the manner of Mr Burns' abduction and murder had horrified the local community.
"He was mercilessly put to death. No family should ever have to face the horror of what Dympna and Lawrence, Michelle, Jacqueline and Larry have had to face in these last number of days. May all families be spared such atrocities," he said.