A 22-year-old woman has been charged with the murder of a man in Co Down.
Appearing at Newtownards Magistrates Court by videolink, Lesley Ann Dodds was charged with the murder of William ‘Pat’ McCormick whose body was found in a lake in Ballygowan in July 2019.
Dodds, from Gortfin Street in Belfast, was allegedly in a relationship with the 55-year-old while engaged to David Gill and was initially charged with aiding and abetting in the murder.
Gill (28), who is in custody but has an address at Terrace View in Waringstown, has also been charged with the murder.
Although they did not appear at court today, four other men were also charged with offences.
Previous courts have heard claims that Mr McCormick was lured to an address in Comber where he was last seen alive on May 30 2019.
After seeing Gill’s van parked close to the flat, the victim rang police to say that he was in fear for his own safety, according to the Crown case.
While Dodds wasn’t at the flat during the alleged attack, she was recorded on CCTV arriving about an hour after Mr McCormick.
It is also the police and PPS contention that the following day, Gill was seen coming and going from the flat and it is then the body was allegedly disposed of.
Mr McCormick's body was recovered from a lake in Ballygowan on July 9 and post-mortem examinations revealed he had sustained multiple rib fractures.
The four new defendants are jointly accused of withholding information in that allegedly knowing a murder had been committed and having “information which was likely to secure or to be of material assistance in securing the apprehension prosecution or conviction of some person for that offence, without reasonable excuse failed to give that information within a reasonable time to a constable”.
They are: Gill’s older brother William Gill (41), from Terrace View in Waringstown; Andrew Leslie (22) of Mourne Crescent in Moneyrea; Jonathan Montgomery (22) from Castle Espie Road in Comber; and Jack Rowden (20), c/o Hydebank Young offenders centre.
In addition to being accused of withholding information, Gill, Leslie and Montgomery are accused of assisting the alleged killers, while Rowden faces two charges of perverting the course of justice.
In court today, lawyers for all of the accused applied for the case to be adjourned to allow them to consider the “voluminous” papers in the case.
Dodds’s solicitor Patrick Higgins said in addition to 2,400 pages of statements from more than 200 witnesses, detectives also had evidence from 28 different CCTV locations and had listed 231 evidential exhibits.
District Judge Mark Hamill adjourned the case to March 10.
