Sectarian killer Christopher Kerr was in court today accused of escaping lawful custody.
Standing handcuffed in the dock of Antrim Magistrates Court 32-year-old Kerr, serving a sentence of life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of nine years, spoke only to confirm that he understood the four charges against him.
In addition to an offence of escaping lawful custody on June 21 this year Kerr, listed as having an address at Carnduff Drive in Ballymena but who was produced to court from Maghaberry prison, is also accused of three drug offences, namely that he had class A cocaine and class C drugs diazepam and Xanax on the same date and class B drug cannabis resin on June 22.
Giving evidence to the court a police officer said she believed she could connect Kerr to each of the offences while defence counsel Stephen Law said the killer was “keen to have the matter expedited” as Kerr is “beyond tariff.”
Remanding Kerr into custody, Deputy District Judge Peter Magill ordered him to appear again via videolink on July 31.
The offences arise after Kerr allegedly ran away from prison officers in Victoria Square shopping centre while out on day release.
He was arrested at Antrim Area Hospital the following day.
Kerr is serving a life term for the sectarian attack which claimed the life of 15-year-old Catholic schoolboy Michael McIlveen.
The teenager was kicked and beaten with a baseball bat in an alleyway after being chased by a gang in his hometown in May 2006.
The teenager, known to his friends and family as 'Micky Bo', died later from brain injuries inflicted during the assault.
Mervyn Moon, who plead guilty to murder and is from Douglas Terrace in Ballymena, was jailed for a minimum 10 years after the prosecution outlined how the schoolboy died "solely as a consequence of the blows issued by Mervyn Moon with the baseball bat."
It was Kerr, the murder jury heard, who handed Moon the bat.
Although Mickeybo was murdered in 2006 Kerr, was not convicted until 2009 following a lengthy trial and the then sentencing judge Mr Justice Treacey jailed him for a minimum of 13 years.
The Court of Appeal quashed Kerr’s conviction however and ordered a retrial which sat for three days in April 2013 before he admitted his guilt.
The trial judge Mr Justice Weatherup imposed a life sentence and jailed Kerr for a minimum of nine years.
Also convicted of the murder were Aaron Wallace and Jeff Lewis, 20 and 19-years-old at the time they were sentenced in May 2009, while Christopher McLeister, then 18, of Ballymena, was given a three-year sentence suspended for two years for the teenager's manslaughter.
Two other Ballymena men were also sentenced for offences of affray and criminal damage arising from the killing.