DOUBLE KILLER Stephen Brown was yesterday handed a minimum 30-year prison sentence for his role in what was described as “one of the most gruesome murders of the past 40 years in Northern Ireland”.
Brown was convicted last month of the murder of teenagers Andrew Robb (19) and David McIlwaine (18) who has their throats cut on an isolated country road in Tandragee, Co Armagh, in February 2000.
Sentencing Brown (28), Castle Place, Castlecaulfield, Co Tyrone, to spent the next three decades in prison, Mr Justice Gillen said the murders were “cold-blooded and barbaric”.
The former taxi driver, who is also known as Stephen Revels, will be in his mid-50s when considered eligible for release by the parole commissioners.
The judge told Brown: “The postmortems on the bodies of these two teenagers bear silent testimony to the sadistic manner in which you and your accomplice brought about their deaths.
“These crimes were so horrendous that they offered no insight into human nature or the recurring pattern of human behaviour.
“Civilised reason can furnish no explanation for them. They represent unbridled mindless violence and total disregard for the value and dignity of human life.”
Speaking after sentence was passed, David’s father Paul McIlwaine said he wants to meet with his son’s killer in prison. He also said he believed the minimum 30-year sentence handed to Brown was “too lenient.”
During the trial – which began at Belfast Crown Court last November – Mr Justice Gillen was told the two young victims were lured to their deaths after Robb made a disparaging comment about UVF commander Richard Jameson, who has been murdered during a loyalist feud a fortnight before. The comment was made in Brown’s house and several hours later, both Mr Robb and Mr McIlwaine were brutally stabbed to death and left in pools of their own blood on the Druminure Road on the outskirts of Tandragee.
Their mutilated bodies were discovered on the morning of February 19th, 2000. At that time, Brown was aged 19.
Much of the crown evidence came from “supergrass” Mark Burcombe who was present at the murder scene and who gave evidence about Brown’s role in the killing.
He told the court the teenagers were lured to their deaths with the promise of going to a party but instead were driven to their gruesome deaths in Brown’s car.
Burcombe – who is now on a witness protection programme after serving 2½ years for conspiring to cause grievous bodily harm to Robb – said that while he did not see Mr Robb being murdered, he saw Brown attack then repeatedly stab Mr McIlwaine.
The witness said that after the murders, Brown said the killings gave him “a buzz”.
Burcombe also told the court that as they drove back from the murder scene, Brown threatened he would cut his throat if he told anyone.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Gillen said the murders “undoubtedly rank amongst the most gruesome of the past 40 years in Northern Ireland”.
The judge revealed he had considered jailing Brown for the rest of his natural life, but said he bore in mind the accused’s age at the time of the killings. He also said he acknowledged the impact Brown’s mother’s murder at the hands of his father when Brown was just a child had on him.
Mr McIlwaine’s grieving father said: “I have requested to visit him in prison. I want him to sit down, if he is willing, and talk to me about the involvement of everybody else.
“He is only a pebble in the ocean.”
Another man named in court as being involved, Noel Dillon, took his own life in 2005.