Witness queried in soldier murder trial

A soldier has denied changing his evidence against a comrade accused of murdering a corporal from Northern Ireland at their army barracks in England.

Witness queried in soldier murder trial

Farrell is on trial for the murder of Corporal McNeill. (© West Mercia Police)

Lance Corporal Richard Farrell is on trial for killing Corporal Geoffrey McNeill, a fellow member of the Royal Irish Regiment at Clive Barracks in Shropshire.

He denies the murder.

The victim, originally from Ballymoney, was found dead in his room at the Army base in March of this year.

On Friday, defence counsel Stephen Linehan QC argued Cpl Robin McDowell, who was giving evidence against the accused, had changed his evidence.

Mr Linehan said: "I am suggesting to you that opinion in the regiment against Mr Farrell among a number of soldiers has hardened."

In the witness box at Birmingham Crown Court, Cpl McDowell replied: "No more so than anyone accused of murder."

The Crown claims that 23-year-old Farrell "inflicted heavy blows" to Cpl McNeill back at the Tern Hill barracks in the early hours of 8 March, in an assault so violent he broke the corporal's neck in three places.

The court previously heard that both men had been out drinking earlier that night, and Cpl McNeill had punched Farrell during an argument in a pub in nearby Market Drayton.

Cpl McDowell had been out with the two soldiers that same night, but had not been drinking and returned to the base early.

He told the court he had been preparing to meet Cpl McNeil when he was told something was wrong by a colleague.

He said he ran upstairs to Cpl McNeill's room on the third floor to find him lying cold on the floor.

As he checked for a pulse, and later called an ambulance, he told the jury he became aware of Farrell in the room with the younger man explaining it was he who had found Cpl McNeill.

Cpl McDowell said Farrell told him: "He had woken up in the [barracks] guard room and there had been trouble with Geoff and another soldier and he had wanted to come up and apologise for being an idiot, or words to that effect."

Christopher Hotten QC, for the prosecution, asked if he recalled how Farrell knew where McNeill's room was.

"He said he'd asked another soldier what accommodation block he lived in, and had then knocked on every door - but I remember thinking he hadn't knocked my door," said Cpl McDowell.

Mr Hotten than asked how Farrell had identified which room was Cpl McNeill's.

Cpl McDowell replied: "He said he had come up to the top floor and said he had seen it said 'Geoff McNasty' on the door."

The door's name plate in fact read Cpl Geoffrey McNeill.

But under cross-examination by Mr Linehan QC, Cpl McDowell was asked why it was that the term 'McNasty' had not appeared in the his witness statement he gave to police the day after Cpl McNeill was found dead.

The soldier argued he remembered mentioning it to a police officer and had only realised this was omitted from the written statement on the morning of Friday's hearing.

Mr Linehan put it to Cpl McDowell that he had heard another soldier use the term "McNasty", and added it to his evidence - an accusation the corporal denied.

The defence told the court that soldiers in the camp had smashed Farrell's car after he was charged with murder, something that Cpl McDowell confirmed.

The corporal was also asked about an incident at the barracks on 11 July, the eve of the Twelfth when Orangemen traditionally march, when two groups of soldiers from the regiment appeared to take part in rival parades.

Mr Linehan asked whether Protestant soldiers had Ulster flags and the other group had republican flags.

The soldier responded that it had been a "bit of banter" but added that he had only just driven onto the base as the scene was unfolding.

He also said there had been "some wearing balaclavas - on both sides".

The trial continues.