A MAN was jailed for three years for culpable homicide yesterday after
a five-week trial at the High Court in Kilmarnock.
Five men had faced charges of murdering 29-year-old twins Cornelius
and Dominic Burke, described in court as ''men of violence''. Three went
free, and a fourth had charges dropped.
John Lamb, 34, of Haycocks Road, Stevenston, was sentenced to three
years back dated to September for the culpable homicide with provocation
of Cornelius Burke and the assault to severe injury of Dominic Burke,
who later died, by striking him with a pick axe handle.
Patrick Erskine, 26, of Campbell Avenue, Stevenston, Paul Reilly, 24,
of Wood Street, Kilwinning, Thomas Campbell, 37, of Mauchline Avenue,
Irvine, and Stuart Mitchellhill, 18, of Ramsons Hotel, Saltcoats, had
all pled not guilty to charges of assaulting and murdering the twins.
Erskine, Reilly, and Campbell were cleared of the murder charge
concerning Cornelius Burke. Campbell was sentenced to three months back
dated to September for assaulting Dominic Burke to his severe injury,
and in Reilly's case this charge was found not proven. Mitchellhill had
both charges withdrawn.
Dominic Burke, of Reid Terrace, and Cornelius, of Guthrie Road, both
Saltcoats, had become involved in an incident on September 18 last year
outside the car park at Ramsons Hotel where Lamb, Erskine, and Reilly
were stewards.
It centred on a disagreement between Dominic Burke and Lamb earlier in
the day after Lamb found Burke in the home of his estranged common-law
wife, Sally Wallace.
By evening it had brewed up into a row at the hotel involving death
threats. Police made the Burkes leave.
Later, Lamb met up with the Burkes just near the car park and struck
Cornelius on the neck with a pick axe handle. A number of men crowded in
on the twins.
The incident was over in minutes. As the men ran back into the hotel
the police were already on their way.
Cornelius Burke was killed by an ''unlucky'' blow to the jawline from
Lamb's pick axe handle.
Dominic Burke survived the assault, but died in hospital a week later.
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