Owen Creaney murder accused '˜disgusted by what happened'

Following her arrest for the July 2014 murder of Owen Creaney, during police interviews Shaunean Boyle denied both involvement in the brutal beating and helping to squash Mr Creaney’s remains in a green wheelie bin.

She also told police she was “sorry for” Mr Creaney’s family, but insisted she was not involved and said: “I swear on my child’s life that I didn’t do it.”

Boyle, 25, from Edenderry Park in Banbridge, is standing trial with Stephen Thomas Hughes, 29, for the murder of Mr Creaney, who sustained a fatal beating in the hallway of Hughes’s Moyraverty Court home in Craigavon.

The jury at Belfast Crown Court has already heard it took Mr Creaney two days to die from the fatal chest and head wounds he sustained in the early hours of Thursday July 3, 2014.

Both Boyle and Hughes have admitted being present when Mr Creaney was attacked, but both have denied murder and have blamed each other for the violence which claimed the victim’s life.

During yesterday’s hearing, the court heard police interviews conducted with Boyle in the direct aftermath of the murder.

She denied being involved in the attack, denied helping in a clean-up operation, and also denied helping to put the deceased in the recycling bin, claiming she “wouldn’t have the nerve to do it”.

Boyle said she was “gobsmacked” when Hughes informed her that Mr Creaney had died in an upstairs bedroom. When she was asked by police about Mr Creaney being placed in the bin, she said: “The man’s dead. I felt disgusted, the fella was my friend. I wouldn’t like that done to my son.”

And when she was asked whether or not she and Hughes discussed burning Mr Creaney’s remains after he died, Boyle answered: “No, I wouldn’t let him burn him. That’s just wrong.”

Boyle was also asked about cleaning she did in Hughes’s house on the morning of Saturday July 5, 2014 – the day of her arrest and the day the body was found in the bin. She said she had been giving Hughes a hand to clean his house, but denied this was a clean-up operation in a bid to get rid of forensic evidence.

The jury also heard Boyle’s reaction, while being interviewed by police, when she was informed of Hughes’s version of events. He admits being at home when Mr Creaney was attacked, but claimed it was Boyle who administered the fatal beating.

He also claimed that he and Boyle both placed Mr Creaney in the bin – a claim denied by Boyle.

When Boyle was asked by police what her reaction was to Hughes’s allegations, she branded what he said as “pure lies” and said she was “disgusted”.

Boyle told police she was “sorry” for Mr Creaney’s family, and said had she known his injuries were so serious, she would have “got him to the hospital”.

At hearing.