By Jonathan McCambridge
17 December 2004The family of a Rasharkin man stamped to death in England today spoke of their 12-month nightmare coming to terms with his horrific murder.
The mother, sisters and brothers of Seamus Dalrymple have insisted that he was a "kind and caring" person who was killed as part of a burglary.
They have dismissed "lies" told in court about their brother and said the two teenage girls who murdered him were not invited into his home.
They have also said that items stolen belonged to his father Gerry, who was murdered by the UDA in Castlerock in 1993.
Earlier this week Maxine Breakspear (19), and Rochelle Etherington (18), of Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, were convicted of the murder of father-of-one Mr Dalrymple at his flat in January of this year.
The two teenagers mounted a savage attack on the Rasharkin man, stamping on him and smashing a video recorder on his head as he lay defenceless.
In court, the two accused claimed they attacked Mr Dalrymple because he had made an indecent approach towards one of their friends and because he tried to throw a middle-aged woman out of the flat.
They also claimed that they had been invited to the flat where they regularly met with friends to drink.
But the Dalrymple family, mother, Patricia, sons, Joe and Eamonn and sisters, Geraldine, Celine and Fiona, have joined together to describe the murderers' claims as lies.
In a joint statement the family said that the claims of Etherington and Breakspear had been proven to be lies during their murder trial at the Old Bailey.
"Seamus was the victim of an unprovoked attack," they said.
The killers are set to be sentenced in six weeks.