THE TRIAL of three Lurgan men for the murder of schoolboy Gavin Malcolm came to a dramatic halt yesterday when the chief Crown witness refused to answer any further questions.
During his second day of cross examination Thomas Glen Haggan began to cry in the witness box and, after a short adjournment said that he did not wish to continue and would not answer any more questions.
Haggan, who is serving indefinite detention for the murder of the 15 year old boy, last week identified the three defendants as those who were with him at the time Gavin Malcolm was killed.
Private Jason Chittick (22), of the Royal Irish Regiment, Mr Keith Edward Brown (23) and Mr William James Turkington (18) deny beating the boy unconscious before throwing him from a fourstorey block of flats on April 8th, 1994.
Haggan was being cross examined about the contents of letters he had written while on remand in July, 1994, when he began to cry. He told Mr Justice McCollum that he was not unwell but did not want to continue.
The judge warned that giving evidence involved the requirement to answer questions in cross examination and told him that he had to continue to give answers.
But when Mr James Gallagher, appearing for Mr Brown, attempted to continue his cross examination, Haggan repeated: "I don't want to continue."
He then sat silent with his head bowed.
At the request of the prosecution, the judge adjourned the trial until this morning. He told the jury: "This is a dramatic and unusual development in the case, and I think that hasty decisions might not be in the best interests of justice."