A Belfast man was jailed for life yesterday at the Crown Court for the murder of hairdresser Norman Harley in an attack which the judge described as "appalling and vicious". Mr Justice Campbell said
Christopher McMillan (22), from Kansas Avenue, had been given no provocation for the attack on an innocent man who was incapable of putting up any resistance.
The body of 46-year-old Mr Harley was found in the Waterworks Park in North Belfast on November 27th, 1995. He had died from severe injuries to the head and body, some caused by an iron bar and some by kicking.
During the trial in April a number of witnesses gave evidence of seeing McMillan carrying an iron bar and that he had said he had
"beaten a Taig around the head in the Waterworks".
In his reserved judgment Mr Justice Campbell said that on the evidence he found McMillan inflicted heavy blows with the bar which caused major injuries to the victim.
A second accused, Mark Bellringer (22), from Antrim Road, Belfast, was sentenced to seven years after being convicted of the manslaughter of Mr Harley. Earlier he had been cleared of murder by direction of the judge.
Passing sentence the judge said he accepted this had not been a sectarian attack. "The objective facts suggest it was to get money to feed the men's addiction to alcohol for which this man lost his life."
Bellringer was given a concurrent four-year term after being convicted of causing grievous bodily harm to a second man who was attacked in the Waterworks Park on the same evening.