Sectarian child killer Mervyn Moon battered and mugged by heroin addicts

We can reveal the 33-year-old, who was only recently released on licence for the brutal murder of Ballymena teenager Michael McIlveen, got a hiding in Belfast city centre after trying to score some heroin.

Sources from the Co Antrim town, where Moon has been spotted visiting, say he told friends there he had been attacked by three heroin users near Castle Street.

Moon was initially released from his life sentence for killing the Catholic teenager – known to family and friends as Mickey Bo – five years ago but was returned to jail for breaching the terms of his licence.

He was once kicked out of open prison Burren House in north Belfast for taking drugs and returned to Maghaberry Prison.

Now sources say he is addicted to heroin and has become a slave to the drug since being released less than two years ago on licence and that has left him at the mercy of dealers in the town.

“He got battered a couple of weeks ago when he was trying to buy heroin for himself in the city centre,” said a source from Ballymena who knows Moon and his family.

“He fancies himself as a hardman, but he dresses like a spice boy. He asked these addicts if he could buy some gear and told him no problem. They took him around the corner and when he took his cash out they cracked him in the jaw a few times.

“They took his cash, his phone and raided his pockets. They even took his hat and the chain off his neck and his gold rings.

“He got a good beating but the stupid t**t told people what happened to him so now he’s getting the p*ss taken out of him. Everyone’s laughing at him making fun about him getting beaten up by a few homeless guys.”

Sources have also questioned how he has managed to stay out of jail for almost two years given the fact his licence conditions bar him from taking drugs and being in the company of criminals.

“People are wondering how he hasn’t been sent back to prison because he’s out taking drugs and mixing with criminals,” said a source.

“He’s a bit of a mess at the minute. Maybe what he did to Mickey Bo has left its mark on him and he needs to be off his face to cope with the fact he’s a child killer.”

Schoolboy Michael was punched, kicked and beaten with a baseball bat in an alleyway in Ballymena after a row involving a group of Protestant teenagers in May 2006.

The 15-year-old died hours later in hospital and during the trial, which took place three years later, it emerged that Moon had delivered the sickening killer blow with a baseball bat to the head to the stricken teen.

Four people, including Moon who pleaded guilty to murder, were handed minimum terms ranging from 13 years to 10 years at Antrim Crown Court for killing the teenager.

Another man convicted of the teenager’s manslaughter was given a three-year suspended sentence.

Two others were also sentenced. One was given 10 months for affray and criminal damage, and the other a conditional discharge for criminal damage.

During sentencing, Moon was given credit for his early guilty plea and what the judge described as his “clear and genuine remorse for his actions”.

However, any feeling of remorse seemed to have disappeared when he got of prison in 2017 and confronted the mother of his murder victim and taunted her about his death on a busy street.

The sectarian thug was heard by Gina McIlveen to shout ‘F**k her son’ in front of her. She slapped Moon for the provocation, and she received a conditional discharge in court for hitting him.

Afterwards Gina told the Sunday World: “I didn’t even know who he was at first, I haven’t seen his face since the trial, but I will never forget it now.

“I was walking past, and I saw someone on a phone and then I heard ‘f**k her son’. I said to him, ‘what did you say’ and he just laughed at me. He looked me right in the eyes and laughed.

“I couldn’t stop shaking, I felt sick, I slapped him, but I have no regrets,” Gina said. remorse

“All I could think was it’s because of him that my Michael is not here, it’s because of him he’s not with me,” she said.

“He took my child from me, how was I supposed to react? How can you prepare coming face to face with your child’s killer when you don’t expect it? I always knew he had no remorse, well he just proved that the day he met me.

“Killing my child meant nothing to him and it still doesn’t, his behaviour tome is evidence of that,” she said.

Moon has been living in a hostel in north Belfast and was involved in a relationship with a woman who is related to another convicted killer.

She too was caught with drugs and taken to court where she was convicted but Moon apparently went crazy when it emerged the woman was friends with around a dozen other inmates at Maghaberry Prison.

Last year Moon lost a High Court battle to win compensation after he staggeringly claimed he deserved to be released earlier than he was.

He issued judicial review proceedings against Northern Ireland’s Parole Commissioners for refusing to let him out again in June 2020 following a risk assessment and it was reported he wanted over £20,000 in damages.

But a judge ruled that the Commissioners were entitled to deny the earlier release, based on the material available to them.

steven.moore@sundayworld.com