A SECOND man has admitted his involvement in the sectarian murder of Derry civil servant Paul McCauley, who died nine years after a vicious assault left him in a coma from which he never awoke.
Matthew Brian Gillen (31) of Bond Street, in the Waterside area of the city, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, with a charge of murdering the father of one, allowed to "remain on the books".
Gillen also pleaded guilty to assaulting two of Mr McCauley's friends who were also injured when a gang of loyalist attacked them at a barbecue they in the Chapel Road area of Derry on July 16, 2006.
He was remanded into custody to be sentenced in November along with his co-accused 28-year-old Piper John McClements from the Fountain estate, who pleaded guilty to the murder of the 38-year-old who died on June 6 2015.
When the Derry Crown Court, sitting in Belfast resumed today, prosecution QC Ciaran Murphy asked trial judge Mr Justice Adrian Colton for permission to amend the indictment "by agreement" with the addition of a fourth count.
Defence QC Turlough Montague then applied for Gillen to be rearraigned on the first two counts on the indictment, and the new fourth count.
When the murder charge was put to Gillen he replied: "Not guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter."
He then pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to one of Mr McCauley's friends, and causing a second friend, actual bodily harm.
Mr Murphy told the judge he "had had the opportunity of taking instructions" and that Gillen's guilty pleas satisfied the requirements of the indictment, 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.
