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20/05/2011
DNA Evidence Catches Rogue RUC Inspector
A Northern court has heard how a former police inspector was caught and successfully prosecuted for murder after advances in forensic science meant investigating officers were able to match his DNA with that found under the fingernails of the dead pensioner.
Annabella Symington was found dead at her south Belfast home and now, Kenneth Mark McConnell, 59, from Prospect Downs, Carrickfergus, who was a gambling addict, has been jailed for 18 years after he killed Annabella Symington in 1989.
Mrs Symington, a widow living on her own in Willesden Park in south Belfast, was found dead on her dining room floor.
McConnell eventually admitted that through having an affair with her niece Margaret Fleming, he had discovered that she was rich and had gone to her house to beg for money to cover gambling debts.
However, the pensioner told him he was being "impertinent" by asking for cash and a struggle ensued, during which McConnell stuffed her cardigan sleeve into her mouth to stop her from screaming and it was this which suffocated her.
Mr Justice Hart said it had been a "brutal murder of an elderly lady who had quite properly refused to provide him with the means to continue to fund his addiction".
(BMcC)
Annabella Symington was found dead at her south Belfast home and now, Kenneth Mark McConnell, 59, from Prospect Downs, Carrickfergus, who was a gambling addict, has been jailed for 18 years after he killed Annabella Symington in 1989.
Mrs Symington, a widow living on her own in Willesden Park in south Belfast, was found dead on her dining room floor.
McConnell eventually admitted that through having an affair with her niece Margaret Fleming, he had discovered that she was rich and had gone to her house to beg for money to cover gambling debts.
However, the pensioner told him he was being "impertinent" by asking for cash and a struggle ensued, during which McConnell stuffed her cardigan sleeve into her mouth to stop her from screaming and it was this which suffocated her.
Mr Justice Hart said it had been a "brutal murder of an elderly lady who had quite properly refused to provide him with the means to continue to fund his addiction".
(BMcC)
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05 May 2011
Double Deaths Rocks Northern Prison
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There have been two further deaths in prison custody in the North with both a male and a female remand prisoner found dead at Hydebank in south Belfast.
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Ireland WeatherToday:A sunny but frosty start for many. However cloud increases by midday with a few showers reaching the north coast, these mostly light but spreading inland this afternoon. Chilly. Maximum temperature 8 °C.Tonight:A rather cloudy evening with scattered showers. Becoming drier through the night with some good clear spells developing and a patchy frost away from coasts. Minimum temperature 0 °C.
