// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
'An IRA boss wanted me dead - my best mate was killed beside me'
Robert McCartney and Brendan Devine had been friends for more than 15 years
The survivor of a notorious knife murder that got the attention of the White House has told his story on television for the first time.
Brendan Devine's throat was slashed and he suffered a severe stab wound to the abdomen in a 2005 attack involving members of the Provisional IRA.
His friend Robert McCartney was killed. In the fallout McCartney's sisters and fiancée mounted a campaign for justice that won support from US President George W Bush and the European Parliament.
But the crime remains unsolved – and in a new BBC documentary series Devine tells of his guilt over the way the attack unfolded, and for the failure to catch the killers.
Brendan Devine was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after his friend was killed
"I don't feel guilty for the actual happening but I do worry that my big mouth could have inflamed the situation, and got Bert killed," he said.
"It's terrible. To have to live with that and to think that you could be a reason for the death of your mate.
The two men were stabbed near Market Street in Belfast city centre, after leaving Magennis's bar on 31 January 2005.
A former detective who worked on the case tells the documentary Murder in Belfast: Sisters Seeking Justice that 33-year-old Robert McCartney was "as innocent as they come".