UNCLE OF QUINNS 'GAVE DRUGS TO TODDLER'

AN UNCLE of the murdered Quinn brothers was accused of supplying drugs to
the three-year-old daughter of the man charged with the killings, a court
has heard.

The startling accusation was made by a barrister representing Thomas Robert
Garfield Gilmour (24) who yesterday went on trial for the murder of Jason
(8), Mark (10) and Richard (12) Quinn.

The children died when their home in Carnany Park, Ballymoney was petrol
bombed on July 12, 1998.

Defence counsel Arthur Harvey QC stated on two occasions that their uncle
Colum "Colly" Quinn had given drugs to children in the estate.

The children, he said, included Gilmour's three-year-old daughter.

He made the accusation while cross examining friends of Mr Quinn both of
whom strenously denied the claims.

However, one of them, William Charles Cage, admitted that he and Mr Quinn
had been involved in "wrecking and robbing homes" in the estate.

But he stressed: "That was all in the past."The witness also told how just
weeks before the petrol bomb attack Gilmour had warned Colly Quinn that "he
would be got".

The threat was made during a row outside Mr Quinn's Carnany home, which had
been burned out in blast bomb attack a few weeks earlier.

Mr Cage, who at the time was the boyfriend of the Quinn brothers' aunt
Collette, told the court he had moved out of the house where the murders
took place, shortly before the attack.

His friend Robert Howard also gave evidence about threats made against the
Quinn brothers' uncle.

He described how the accused had warned them that "anybody that took drugs
was going out".

Under cross examination by Mr Harvey, the witness admitted that Mr Quinn
had also threatened the accused.

Earlier, the court heard neighbours describe how they tried in vain to
rescue the three Quinn children.

One of them, David Heatherington recalled how he had spoken to one of the
boys through an upstairs window.

"Richard Quinn was at the window. He said he was getting hot, he was
frightened and his feet were burning," Mr Heatherington said.

"He told me he could not get out, because he was scared of cutting himself
on the window."Although she was in court the boys mother Chrissie did not
take the stand.

Instead her statement was read out decribing how she too had tried to save
her children.

"I was awoken by the boys crying 'mummy, smoke.' I went to their room but
could not find them. I then went to the window and screamed for help.

"Someone shouted to me to jump and the next thing I remember was sitting in
the ambulance."The heartbroken mother also told how a number of residents
in the estate had received a bullet in the post a few days before the attack.

And because she did not receive a bullet, the young Catholic mother felt
that "she was finally being accepted in the estate".

Outlining the case against Gilmour, Crown Prosecutor Gordon Kerr QC said
there is evidence of a "grievance" between the accused and the Quinn
brothers' uncle Colum.

He added that Gilmour had played a full part in the murders, along with two
other men.

"He drove two men to the house on the night of the incident, he knew the
purpose was to attack the Quinns and that there was a a petrol bomb
involved," the prosecuting barrister said.

"The circumstances in which the attack was carried out, including the
timing and the obvious occupancy of the house was done in the conetmplation
the the occupants would be killed."The non-jury trial, which is being heard
before Lord Justice William McCollum, is expected to last two weeks.