Hi °C | Lo °C Two brothers who admitted carrying out a drunken attack and beating their alcoholic uncle after discovering he was an alleged rapist have gone on trial for his murder.
Belfast Crown Court heard that Gerard Patrick Gaskin (30) and his brother Daniel ‘Danny' Bernard Gaskin (22) confessed to police to attacking their uncle Seamus Holland in his Upton Park home in west Belfast, in the early hours of November 21, 2010.
However, the brothers from Gortnamona Way deny the murder of their uncle who died from a heart attack in hospital later that same day.
Prosecuting QC Terence Mooney told the jury that despite the distasteful past allegation against 55-year-old Mr Holland, their role was not to determine whether or not he deserved to die, but how he died and who caused it.
The prosecution lawyer said while the brothers may not have set out to murder their uncle, they had, while emboldened by drink and revenge, gone to his home and gave him a savage and sustained beating.
The trial, expected to take up to three weeks, continues today.
