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[1] The applicant renews his application for leave to appeal against his conviction at Dungannon Crown Court on 18 December 2007 of the murder of Noel Alexander Williamson in Caledon on 13 October 2004.
[3] The applicant also made threats about the deceased during that day. One witness described how the applicant said he intended to hit the deceased when the deceased came back to a nearby park later that night as planned. That witness also said that when Houston produced a knife and said he was going to kill the deceased the applicant encouraged him to "just kill him". There was also evidence that the applicant and Houston asked the deceased to come out to fight with them on the evening of 12 October 2004 after they had been refused admission to a public house.
[4] Around 1:30 a.m. on 13 October 2004 Houston, the applicant and the deceased were seen making their way to the park area beside the Blackwater River where the deceased's battered and disfigured body was found on a pathway along the banks of the river on the morning of 13 October 2004. The post-mortem examination revealed that he had been extensively beaten before his death and that he sustained a number of knife wounds including a severance of the carotid artery. His death may have occurred over a period of hours and took place sometime between 2 am and 4 am.
[9] No statutory authority was cited in the brief exchanges between the learned trial Judge and Mr McGrory QC on the issue of the exclusion of the video evidence and the matter was not raised again before the end of the trial. At the hearing of this application for leave to appeal McGrory placed reliance on Article 74(4) (b) of the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989.
At least part of the reason for which the applicant wished to admit the videos was to demonstrate how the applicant expressed himself in his exchanges with the Gardai. Mr Reid, for the prosecution, was disposed to accept that on this basis the evidence was admissible and we consider that it was admissible for the purposes set out in Article 74 (4) (b).
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