A Co Down man has been handed a life sentence after he admitted the murder of his partner’s cousin.
Timothy Walker was due to go on trial at Downpatrick Crown Court on Monday, but instead, defence KC John Kearney asked for the 43-year-old to be rearraigned on the single charge against him.
He pleaded guilty to the murder of Denis Curtis Shearer on March 9 2021.
Standing alongside him in the dock, his partner mother-of-four Natalie Brannigan was also rearraigned and she admitted that despite knowing or believing Walker had committed attempted murder, she assisted an offender.
The charges followed an attack on her cousin Mr Shearer at his home on the Fernmore Road in Bangor at the end of February.
Walker, originally from Abbey Ring in Holywood but now with an address at HMP Maghaberry, bludgeoned him with a “blunt instrument” before fleeing the scene and leaving his victim fatally injured.
In court on Monday, both Mr Kearney and Brannigan’s defence KC Eilish McDermott asked for sentencing to be adjourned to allow the probation board to complete pre-sentence reports.
Prosecuting KC David McDowell said that in addition, the PPS would also be obtaining victim impact statements from Mr Shearer’s grieving relatives.
Addressing Walker, Mr Justice O’Hara told him: “It is more than three and a half years since you murdered Mr Shearer in his bed and you have now admitted your part in that offence.
“The law requires me to impose a life sentence on you for that murder and I do that now. I will fix the minimum number of years that you must serve” before he is eligible for release on licence.
Brannigan, from the Green in Holywood, was granted bail.
“I will allow bail to Ms Branigan pending the hearing but she should understand it does not follow from that that she will not be sent to prison in February,” Mr Justice O’Hara warned as he adjourned the case to mid February.