Man pleads guilty to manslaughter of Paul McCauley in Derry - Londonderry

By Michael Donnelly

A second man has admitted his involvement in the death of Catholic civil servant Paul McCauley in Derry Londonderry.

He died in 2015, nine years after a sectarian attack left him in a coma from which he never awoke.

However, a charge of murdering the 38-year-old father of one, was allowed to "remain on the books" in court today. 

Matthew Brian Gillon of Bond Street, in the Waterside area of the city, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

The 31-year-old also pleaded guilty to attacking two of Mr McCauley's friends. 

They were injured when a gang of loyalists stormed a barbarcue they were attending in the Chapel Road area of the Waterside on July 16, 2005.

ABOVE: A family photograph of Mr.McCauley

Gillon was remanded into custody to be sentenced in November, alongside his co-accused Piper John McClements from The Fountain Estate.

The 28-year-old, Previously known as Daryl Proctor, pleaded guilty to murdering Mr McCauley in court yesterday.

When the L'Derry Crown Court non-jury trial resumed this morning (thur) in Belfast, prosecution QC Ciaran Murphy asked trial judge Mr Justice Colton for permission to amend the inditiment "by agreement" with the addition of a fourth count.

Defence QC Turlough Montague then applied for Gillon to be rearraigned on the first two counts on the inditiment, and the new fourth count.

When the murder charge was put to Gillion he replied: "Not Guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter".  He then pleaded guilty to causing grievous bobily harm to one of Mr McCauley's friends, and causing a second friend, actual bodily harm.

Mr Justice Colton was told by Mr Murphy that he "had had the opportunity of taking instructions" and that Gillon's guilty pleas satisfied the requirements of the inditiment, and in the circumstances asked for the original murder charge in his case to "remain on the books".

The case was adjourned for pre-sentence reports until next month, when a tariff hearing on the life sentence faced by McClements will also be heard.  However, Mr Justice Colton indicated, "in ease of Mr McCauley's family" that he would not pass sentence then.

McClement's case is further complicated, in being one of the first of its kind in Northern Ireland, as he has already served a jail term, under his former name of Daryl Proctor, in relation to the original attack on Mr McCauley which left him in a coma.

Mr Justice Colton said he would want to take time to consider legal submissions in the case before passing sentence, which would be after the mid-term break.