A Belfast man has been accused of killing his wife in a “vicious” attack five months ago.
Gary Alexander Baird (61) did not appear at Newtownards Magistrates Court.
Baird, with an address at a secure mental health unit at Belfast City Hospital, is charged with the murder of Susan Baird on August 16 last year. He is detained under the Mental Health Order.
The 60-year-old mother-of-four, who was an office administrator for Orangefield Presbyterian Church on Castlereagh Road, was killed at the marital home at Windermere Road in the Four Winds area.
A police officer objected to bail given the “vicious and totally unpredictable” nature of the offences which give rise to “serious concerns about the risk not just to himself but to the public.”
Defence solicitor Ciaran Toner said Baird has been detained under the Mental Health Order and that he was released into police custody yesterday evening to be interviewed, but has since been returned to the hospital unit.
The consultant psychiatrist treating Baird, said the solicitor, was of the view that he “is not fit for custody in a prison.”
District Judge Mark Hamill granted bail in the sum of £400 but ordered that Baird must reside at the secure mental health unit “or another address approved by police.”
The case was adjourned to February 24.