Slieve League: The beauty spot now linked to Robert Wilkin's murder

BBC News

06-03-2025

Slieve League is billed as Ireland's ultimate sea cliff experience and a signature point on the Wild Atlantic Way.It attracts about 200,000 visitors from around the world each year.But this beauty spot in County Donegal in the north-west of Ireland became a scene of horror in the summer of 2023.Robert Wilkin, from County Tyrone, was attacked by a man and a woman who hit him with a rock and threw him off the cliffs, Dublin's Central Criminal Court was told.At the Central Criminal Court in Dublin on Thursday, Alan Vial, 39, of Drumanoo Head, Killybegs, County Donegal, and Nikita Burns, 23, from the nearby village of Carrick, were convicted of murdering Mr Wilkin on 25 June 2023.
Alan Vial and Nikita Burns had both denied the murder of Mr Wilkin, who was also known as Robin, on 25 June 2023.But it was the prosecution's case that they had engaged in a joint enterprise and that each subsequently claimed that the other "did it".In a normally quiet part of the country, people were shocked at the killing and its gruesome nature.
"I've worked in Donegal for 34 years and I've never heard of anything as gruesome as what began to emerge that week," said journalist Stephen Maguire of the Donegal Daily."To be associated with such a macabre murder just shocked people locally. People just couldn't get over it that something like this would happen in Donegal, a lovely scenic area. "You rarely, if ever, hear of a murder in Donegal."That a person would have his head bashed in with a rock and then that that body would be placed by in a car and driven to such a lovely scenic area and dumped over the side. It just shocked people."
It is understood Mr Wilkin was a transient person.At the time of his death he seemed to have moved in with Vial in Killybegs.Burns also spent time at the house.On 24 June 2023 the three went out drinking in two pubs in Killybegs and Dunkineely and then drove off in the early hours of the following morning.The prosecution said that sometime between 02:00 and 02:15 the car stopped between Killybegs and Ardara and Mr Wilkin was violently assaulted.He was hit on the head before he was driven to the top of Slieve League and his body thrown off. It was recovered from the water below a week later.Mr Maguire said when gardaí (Irish police officers) found the body, journalists from Dublin, the UK and the United States called him for information."People couldn't believe it – they thought it was something they would have seen in a Hollywood movie," he said.
'Devastating for the community'
The chairperson of Donegal County Council, Niamh Kennedy, is from Killybegs and said the local community was still in shock."This place is of outstanding natural beauty," she said."It's devastating for the community but it's also devastating for the families involved with the perpetrator and that of the victim. "Our thoughts are with everyone at this time because it has been really tough but what we will say is we need to just move on."
The area around Slieve League is rural and has a close-knit community, according to businessman Donal Sweeney who runs an arts and crafts shop in Killybegs."People don't really understand how it happened or what happened there, the whole background of it. It's very sad for all the families concerned," said Mr Sweeney."It's a very close community here in south west Donegal and everyone knows each other as well so it's tough on the families."Mr Wilkin had been due to stand trial following the discovery of cocaine and heroin with an estimated street value of £5.7m. The court proceedings were discontinued after his death.He had been living in Tilbury in Essex at the time of his arrest and was questioned by officers from the National Crime Agency after his lorry was stopped at the Coquelles Channel Tunnel terminal in 2021. His truck was carrying Belgian chocolates and documents showed he was due to deliver them to a location in Maidstone in Kent.Hidden inside two pallets of the chocolates were tape-wrapped packages containing 63 kilos of heroin and 32 kilos of cocaine.
'Friendly, warm people'
At Slieve League, locals were saddened by Mr Wilkin's death but also hopeful that the tourist industry - which is extremely important to the economy - would not be affected by the murder.Gillian and Simon Michael, who travelled to Ireland from Melbourne in Australia, said they did not think people would be put off visiting."I think unfortunate things like that happen everywhere in the world and you'd be hard pressed to visit anywhere if you were put off by a violent act," Mrs Michael said."Our impression of the locals has been – Donegal in particular – unbelievably warm, welcoming and friendly."Her husband Simon agreed."It's such a beautiful place, it's here for eternity. That's a small piece of history. It doesn't play any part in my thoughts," he said."It's a beautiful place with such friendly people."