A FATHER and son accused of threatening to kill a man who was shot in the head remain suspects in the attempted murder, a court has heard.
Appearing in the dock of Belfast Magistrates Court, 50-year-old Edward James McKay and his son Edward McKay (18) were jointly charged with threatening to kill Martin Gavin on November 16.
Mr Gavin, whose partner Catherine is the men's daughter and sister, was shot in the back of the head as he sat in a car at Rossnareen Avenue, close to Shaw's Road in west Belfast, on Thursday morning.
He remains in a critical condition at the Royal Victoria Hospital.
At court on Saturday, the McKays, both from Shaw's Court, spoke only to confirm that they understood the single charge against them.
Outlining police objections to bail and the case against the father and son, Detective Sergeant Hawthorne said the alleged threats related to three phone calls on Monday evening when Mr McKay snr allegedly told his son-in-law in the first call that: "Because of what you have done to me I'm going to put one in the back of your head."
In the second call it was allegedly threatened that Mr Gavin's body would be in a car, while in the third, allegedly made by Mr McKay jnr, he threatened that if the couple went to the police "they would be f*****."
The officer said the couple had given statements claiming to recogniser the voices of the callers.
He said police believe the basis for the fall out relates to allegations Mr Gavin made about Mr McKay snr's involvement "with a cannabis factory and illegally-held firearms."
On Thursday morning, he said colleagues received reports of Mr Gavin being shot in the back of the head after two men in high-visibility jackets approached the Vauxhall Zafira he was sitting in and one smashed the window with his "long barrelled firearm" before shooting him.
Then pair sped off in a car which had been stolen last March and the officer said while both McKay's had been arrested and questioned for attempted murder, each denied involvement and had been released on police bail without conditions.
Both men "remain as suspects" he told the court, adding that police were objecting to bail amid fears that they would interfere with witnesses and the investigation or commit further offences.
Under cross examination from Mr McKay snr's defence solicitor Paul Farrell, the officer accepted that he had been captured on CCTV at another location at the time of the shooting, but still maintained that he remains as a suspect.
Mr Farrell suggested to the detective that police had no evidence to link Mr McKay snr to the calls as they had been made from withheld numbers, but DS Hawthorne refuted that, saying his daughter and son-in-law had identified his voice.
Mr McKay jnr's solicitor submitted that with an alibi for the shooting and with a completely clear record, his client was a suitable candidate for bail, revealing that despite police failures to locate his mobile phone, he had had told them where it was and the passcode.
Releasing the pair on their own bail of £1,000 each and conditions that they stay well away from their alleged victim, observe a curfew and be electronically tagged, District Judge Harry McKibben said at the moment "this is purely a threat to kill case" and as such, would not normally warrant a remand in custody.
He said while it would be normal to make assumptions about the two incidents, "at the moment we do not seem to have any link or evidence that the two are actually linked, that's the problem....we cannot proceed on the basis of speculation in these courts."
However, after a prosecuting lawyer told the court the Public Prosecution Service intended to appeal the decision in the High Court, the pair were remanded into custody until Tuesday.
