Northern Ireland

Slight fall in number of murders in 2021

Danny McClean was shot dead in February
Danny McClean was shot dead in February

THE number of murders in Northern Ireland has dropped to its lowest in five years.

Of the 17 victims in 2021, seven were women as well as one toddler girl, eight men and a baby boy.

Overall, the number of killings are down from 2020 when there were 19. This compares with 25 in 2019, 21 in 2018, 18 in 2017 and 17 in 2016.

Co Antrim man Stephen Peck (33) was the first person to be killed this year following an assault near the Joey Dunlop Leisure Centre in Ballymoney on January 3.

Police launched a murder investigation after Mr Peck died a week later in hospital from his injuries.

Gangland-style shootings also claimed the lives of two men.

Dissident republican Danny McClean (54) was shot dead by a lone gunman in February as he sat in a car on Cliftonville Road in north Belfast.

His murder was linked to a fall-out among dissidents.

The former soldier was due to appear in court the following week on paramilitary-related charges.

In early December Mark Hall (31) was murdered as he visited his mother's home in west Belfast.

Two men armed with handguns fired at least seven shots.

Mr Hall was reported to be "inseparable" from a friend, Warren Crossan, who was shot dead a street away last June.

Two children lost their mothers after a man carried out a double murder before taking his own life in Co Antrim in March.

Ken Flanagan stabbed his mother, Karen McClean (50) to death in a house on the Rathcoole estate in Newtownabbey before travelling to a nearby property where he killed his girlfriend, Stacey Knell (30).

Neighbours heard Ms McClean, who also had a younger daughter, scream "I'm dying, I'm dying... it's my son" in the moments after the frenzied attack.

Ms Knell, in her thirties and from east Belfast, had a nine-year daughter.

It emerged that Ms Knell's ex-partner and father of her child, Sam Lillie, alerted social services and the PSNI about Flanagan's violent behaviour earlier that day, saying he feared for his girl's safety.

Police launched a murder inquiry following the discovery of a woman's badly beaten body in a "vicious attack" in April.

Ludmila Poletelova (61) was discovered at her flat in Lodge Court in Limavady. A 45-year-old woman was charged with murder.

Newtownabbey woman Katie Brankin (37) was killed at a camping site in Limavady on July 12.

The mother-of-one was stabbed to death, and her partner Thomas Davidson (53) was charged with murder. In August he took his own life in Maghaberry prison.

Two days later, a second stabbing claimed the life of Nigel David George Orr-McAuley (53) following an attack in a house in Bangor.

A 35-year-old man is charged with his murder.

Two-month-old baby Liam O’Keefe died in a house in Ardoyne in north Belfast in July. His sister was injured but survived the attack.

The children’s 29-year-old mother suffered self-inflicted injuries and is in custody charged with causing the child’s death.

Two-year-old Ali Jayden Doyle from Dungannon died in hospital in August from a head injury.

A 32-year-old man from Dungannon was charged with murder and perverting the course of justice.

The toddler's mother was charged with perverting the course of justice and causing the death of a child.

Mother-of-six Katrina Rainey, who was in her fifties, died in hospital in October after suffering catastrophic burns outside the farmhouse in Knockloughrim, Co Derry, where she lived with her family.

The former midwife was found inside a burning parked car.

Her husband Tommy Rainey was charged with her murder.

In October a 27-year-old man appeared in court charged with the murder of former police officer, Brian Coulter (62), in Magherafelt.

Businessman Jake Bailey-Sloan (23) was injured at Mandeville Street in Portadown on October 17. He died in hospital the following day.

A 22-year-old man was arrested following the young entrepreneur's death but was later released on police bail pending further inquiries.

A 53-year-old man was charged with the murder of Stephen Barriskill in Portadown. The body of 63-year-old Mr Barriskill was discovered at a property in Whitesides Hill in the town.

The north Belfast community was left reeling by the killing of mother-of-four Caoimhe Morgan (30) a week before Christmas.

Ms Morgan's body discovered in a house in Harcourt Drive in the Old Park area.

Her ex-partner Taylor McIlvenna has been charged with her murder.