“Knifed in the night” [2023] – Murder Documentary Ireland

When a promising young boxer is murdered in West Belfast, police must juggle the challenges of keeping the peace process on track while racing against the clock to solve the murder.

#britishcrimedocumentary #murderdocumentaryireland #murderdocumentaryuk

My name is John mcfay I was detective Chief superintendent in charge of the ps9 serious crime Branch I remember getting the call in the middle of the night one of those calls you always dread receiving and that somebody had been stabbed fatally in Belfast tributes have been paid to boxer

Aan McGee Jr who was murdered on the outskirts of West Belfast this morning heartbreaking absolutely heartbreaking who wants to hear that their brother’s been stopped people from right across the community came out in force just to show their support that supp boxing had lost one of their room he was absolutely

Going to go to the top somebody had knifed him how did this happen I just couldn’t understand because Aon was such a good CH he was never angry in his life it’s so important that we we put our hands on the suspect early we knew the murder had just

Happened we have 24 hours to conduct the investigation one of the phages you hear a lot is the dogs in the street know how death how we arrested the wrong person and our hearts Sank I’m Mary Mc and I’m the mother of Amon on the 30th of May 2015 Aon McGee Jr was found stabbed to death on a street corner in West Belfast your kids aren’t supposed to go in front of you you’re not supposed to carry your son’s coffin Yeah just such a loss you’re helpless cuz you wanted to go and help your Res it’s just not the way things should be he just had goals and he knew how to get them and how to go for them and F had strong person y had two older siblings Francis and Anya he was studying engineering while working as a personal trainer his

Father was the champion boxer aan senior who he had followed into the ring he had his boxing career on the go he had his rept business on too and then he was his first year finished engineering 22 and everything to live for I was Ling in bed with my oldest

Sweet boy cormi but I heard a knock at the door and I was like I got see just messing about then I didn’t see no car and I heard no doors something in my head just says Ring’s phone the partner he was with at the time Courtney board answered him was

Like he’s dead he’s dead and I was shoting screaming what do you mean he’s dead he’s dead she was just crying and sobbing and by that stage then I had to run upstairs and I told my mommy get the hospital quick quick get down to the Hospital when I went into the hospital I was put in the room two doctors were brought into me and uh just said we tried for ages couldn’t get and I went to you talking about I went your son name again I went no not my son not my son I just

Walked around going no no no no don’t want to hear this and uh you went it’s your ear son Amon should rang me it’s not even a blur it’s like you don’t even know how to put it into the words it was just so heartbreaking I knew he was gone and she

Just wouldn’t admit it to me over the Phone aon’s friend and his friend’s father came and got me got to the hospital and when I went in the police were sted behind my momy and they just looked at me and went like this and I just dropped him and claps to the floor

The first thing I need is make sure I’ve got the right resources going to the scene with me so I ring the major crime forensic advisor they in turn ring photography mappers the crime scene investigators who are going to take samples and start to get everybody heading my name is Darren McCartney and

I’m a detective Chief Inspector ctor in the psni crime operations Department early in the Saturday the 30th of May 2015 I was on a weekend off and I was hoping to head off with my wife and children but my senior investigator called John and said Daren there’s a there’s a murder in in

Lisbourne and that’s part parcel of the role you had you just tend to drop everything and Go the initial reporting the police who knew the murder had just happened that started CL for me it was in the early hours of Saturday morning that he was stabbed here in summerh Hill Park in twinbrook this is a period of time which is critical for detectives to maximize the opportunity

Retrieve and gather evidence this whole area was uh sealed off we could see very clearly uh there was a car parked here just on the corner uh and there was a trail of blood that led from the the gate all the way down to the road there was no obvious immediate

Motive uh there were no witnesses that were immediately identified at the scene no CCTV there was no sign of a murder weapon so I was alarmed very early there’s nothing really here to be going on time is ticking by uh and I know in cases like this that minutes and hours

Matter it’s so important that we we put our hands on the suspect early does the suspect provide a risk to the greater public or themselves are they carrying any forensic evidence on them that we need to obtain before they get rid of it or destroy it and and thirdly didn’t have

Any weapons that we need to take off the stream to John and Darren aon’s killing appeared to be a random knife attack was unaware at in the early hours of this whether I was dealing with one as salant two or whether this was a gang of people that had attacked Yemen

How did this happen I just couldn’t understand because Aon was such a good child never brought he was never angry in his life never fought in his life you know nobody was out my the door or anything I couldn’t understand this I couldn’t understand like somebody had

Kned him what what did he get in the fight was there a fight where was he I just nothing could could comprehend it Martin Rogan was Iman Junior’s boxing coach and a close family friend to be around such a lovely bunch of people his mother Mary Ana and Francis you know I I

Knew them all very very closely and it just hurts me to think the pain and suffering I’m ready break myself here the pain and suffering that they going through is uh terrible a text message 6:00 in the morning me mck is been killed what my head I wasn’t thinking of young

Aan I was thinking a senior it was only until like it was 8:00 next morning it was him and J what I couldn’t take it in that it was young Aon because it was this young gentle soul this humble young Man called on and want to left the phone and ring and and then I didn’t wanted to yet to have to retell the story of why their amazing son was gone I was trying my best not to see this the VIS in my head see young detectives now wondered who could

Be responsible for aon’s murder in Northern Ireland every crime has to be considered in the context of sectarianism obviously in Northern Ireland and the historical background first thing everybody jumps to par militarism however this was a knife crime it’s very very very rarely that par militarism would be involved in knife

Crimes whoever was responsible the team faced conducting their investigation in precarious circumstances the peace process was under strain following the killing of a prominent Republican to Davidson had been murdered earlier in the month so tensions were high and there had been quite a large number of uh attempted terrorist attacks

On place the situation was made worse by a long-standing distrust of policing in the west Belfast Community where Iman was murdered we PBR would have verged on the border between Belfast and lisburn but fell within lisburn’s area and that would have been probably in a state that where police probably wouldn’t have been

As well received as others sort of challenging environment for police to work in fnber in West Bast it’s a very large urban workingclass community overwhelmingly Nationalist and Republican we had just under 14 years of Peace in terms of the good Fray agreement politics hadn’t really stabilized itself issues around Flags parades bonfire

Twinbrook dominated by Shen f as a political party that party didn’t sign up to placing until 2007 so that literally was only 8 years of acceptance of of the place in the criminal justice system in that area in any other society that relationship was already there but in

The case of twinbrook that’s what makes things more difficult and more convoluted in terms of Investigations historically there’s been distrust of placing in twinbrook and that General West Belfast area we need Community involvement we need community Assistance we need the witnesses a young man from their own

Community been killed and we wanted to get a resolution for that for them for his family Courtney iman’s partner at the time was present at the scene and that giv us an opportunity for a very early account from Courtney to understand why was himing out in the street what

Happened what were they doing that night Courtney had described quite an ordinary evening uh where they had ordered pizza in the house in question it was two ways into it so it’s quite often or quite normal for delivery people to be mixed up and confused with the the best way

And and Aon had gone out in order to see where the delivery driver was we entered crime scene to do the assessment we followed a trail of blood we had the house in question secured as a crime scene the back Garden and it was upon entering the back Garden that we noticed some areas of Blood on the gate and also just on the grass area so that absolutely changed things for me because this attack seemed to have occurred in the back Garden so the early hypothesis that had been formed

Was maying no longer fitting that we weren’t looking at a stranger attack an altercation that had taken place out on the street this was maybe something much more Sinister much more premeditated we were looking at somebody that had deliberately sought out Aon McGee he did have a terrible death and he was such a happy lucky person just couldn’t we couldn’t put the story together that night what had happened or why had happened I was sted five times so there was blood coming out of him everywhere and the doctors were working with him

The blood was in his ears and his hair was soaked with blood his hair was all hard and I me on you good my God he would hate to be Ling there like that you know everybody looking at him in twinbrook police sealed off the crime scene and began a murder

Investigation their presence immediately drew the attention of local community leaders I was asked to go down to the outer Cordon because a shenan counselor had asked to speak to the senior investigating officer to understand what had taken place I was very curious professional gave them a loose briefing that they had been uh

Stabbing after that Exchange I walked back up to the crime scene to continue to work there and when I got back there I spoke to my tactive inspector we’re no we’re here with us the community have the answer here I can’t rely on the traditional media appeel we need

Something faster we need this n one of the phrases you hear a lot is the dogs in the street know who did it and and the reality is the public look to their political represent atives for guidance and for support and for confidence to engage with the

Police so I walked back down again and asked to see the counselor and I said look I’ll just be honest with you and I’m going to ask for help it was difficult cuz detectiv we keep our investigation tight secure don’t talk about it and this was

Probably one of the first times I had taken somebody into I suppose the confidence if CH was right the community would quickly reveal vital evidence if he was wrong the entire investigation could be undermined he hoped to rely on the respect in which Iman was held by the

Community young human was very dedicated sport eating Fitness if he wasn’t training in the ring he was away doing something else you know so I would say maybe about 11 the interest started to grow it was like a family sport I think a bit about a regim to him we bit of

Independence to start look after himself as well he was just a real we man you know loved the style and he was very charismatic word about iman’s death spread quickly around belfast’s closely knit boxing Community uniting the group in Grief boxing and Belfast especially it’s in the DNA of the city we all say there’s nearly a boxing club at the corner of every street especially in the west and north of the city it draws people in from the four corners of a city it’s nearly easier to divide and

Unite politics has always been kept out of boxing you would have clubs from different sections of the community would work very well together it’s nearly Community within itself has produced so many great Champions over the years it helps take kids maybe away from different um antisocial activities

It teaches them kind of discipline and respect and to help our communities kind of Grow couple of nights before the funeral was a vigil and some local politicians members of the boxing Community just members of the community in general came up and the mood out of it was it was the saddest thing it ever attended we had all the support that we

Wanted the fil and everything was amazing that was held on the Tuesday night was absolutely unreal hundreds hundreds and hundreds of people showed up I remember the chapel at St Joseph in h town was absolutely packed out it was standing room only outside and inside people from right

Across the community right across um Belfast the boxing community in particular came out in force just to show their support that supp boxing had lost one of their room this young man with such a right and promising future should be taken from us in such a cruel

Manner this was a young promising boxer that had been murdered it only takes a tweet from somebody like car Frampton and Patty Barnes and others uh really to catch the media attention and this had gone bigger than Northern Ireland and was attracting media internationally it was also cranking up

The the profile of the murder and the focus was very much on the investigation and how we were going to solve this Murder there was no obvious reason for aon’s murder he had no criminal background and was unknown to the police but his partner Courtney revealed a potential lead Courtney told us about her husband who she was estranged with and had been estranged from for many months

Now on the basis of some of the things she said that caused me concern she had told uh her ex-husband that she was now with somebody else and and that she no longer loved them and that was on the day before the murder so this was on the

Friday and the murder took place in the early hours of Saturday morning so we had the start of something that I would describe as a motive it wasn’t much to go on I have to say if you have a motive then you need to look at is there an opportunity the relationship started

When Courtney and uh her family uh went to Turkey on a family holiday she met or he worked in a hotel that then developed into relationship they spent some years in Turkey they eventually got married and he came to Northern IR around 2012 they had three children their

Relationship had broken down although he did have daily contact with the children but beyond that we knew very little about him we don’t know where he is we don’t know where he works if he works we know absolutely nothing detective McVey needed to track down orhan Koka and quickly

He once more turned to the community leaders for their help I named them uh to the counselor police sometimes can be very reluctant to share information so the fact that information is being shared is the start of a relationship you build a relationship you build a partnership you

Build a partnership you build good outcomes within two hours I was told where one cooka slept and where he worked we discovered that he’d been living in a local bar um he was working there and the owner had allowed him to reside on the premises at nighttime we also knew that the suspect

Worked during the day in a local barber just 8 hours after Eman was murdered the local community had led detectives to their Chief suspect but uncovering forensic evidence to link him to the murder would be a challenge I had absolutely no evidence and was concerned that the scene was highly unlikely to produce

Anything the murder scene was in the back Garden of an address that or Koka had legitimate access to he had been at the house that day any forensic evidence was going to be meaningless making somebody a suspect for murder and being arrested for murder is a significant decision if you get it

Wrong it has quite far reach in consequences despite the risks the psni decided to go ahead with the arrest R about 9:00 a.m. there was a decision made that we’d go and make an arrest of Koka detected conable Logan just has to go and conduct their ass she walked in

And cooka just happened to be in The Barbers at the time he had his mobile phone in his hand think he’s a little bit non plus about being arrested by a woman as reply so I’ve done nothing don’t know why you’re here the owner of The Barbers asked him

In Turkish you know what is this about what have you done have you done anything are you in trouble uh and he was denying it he showed to us maybe the first signs of who and what or cooka is and that is somebody who has an issue with

Females when we arrested on CA at moose Barbers the second clock started ticking we have 24 hours to conduct the investigation and to complete the interviews we received his mobile phone from him phones are really important to placing and just so happened that when we moveed to make an arrest cooka was

The phone in his hand a we’ve got the phone B we can attribute it to cooker we we submit that to some of our specialist teams for examination things are now coming back in our favor we’ve got some control we have him we have his phones we start to think there opportunities there

Potential and we knew that we had established a crime scene at Becket bar this was where Koko worked and where detectives now began a forensic search we went straight and acted on the information that was given to us by the community we knew from the information that he had worked there the night

Before H and had’ been there most importantly after the murder and that created the opportunity for us to search for the murder weapon search for clothing and search for any trace evidence that may have been left beckets was a busy bar which held regular functions for the community counceling them could inflame local

Tensions not doing so could risk the loss of vital evidence so there was an option say to the bar sorry don’t care everybody out we’ll let you know when we finished with your bar or we can seek cooperation we can look at where the middle gr is what we can do to

Facilitate both and I think that got us a lot of Goodwill from the owner of the bar and from the staff we were actually showing that we were concerned about his business meanwhile the community greed the loss of a young man held in high esteem young Aon Jor the M man if

Everybody had the frame of mind that that young man had what he was doing feeds in the other kids that they can box and they can also get degrees it’s about believing in yourself I thought he absolutely fantastic he really was was he was a proper fighter in his own right of

Course there’s going to be Whispers that there’s MC on as he going to go all the way but talking to people and boxing about him they were convinced that yeah he absolutely would his professional debut took place in 2014 I think everybody at ringside that night looked at he going wo we have

Something special here he was absolutely going to go to the top I think he just wanted the exhale to be something that he wanted to be it was sport sport sport education education education how do you beat that me and him had man a conversation and I think that’s where where our bond

Really came from cuz I was able to understand them Amon and young am weren’t even speaking young am didn’t like the way big a Carri on with drink and there was a r he said I don’t want you come to train me smell of alcohol every day and

I think it’s hard ey on him cuz you just Mei him and he just cries all day long I can understand he doesn’t want to be trained as that I I can understand that I knew the situation in in his relationship with his father and I felt

For him because I didn’t have the greatest relationship with my father so I was able to sort of way communicate with him and many a time you and him had a good personal private conversations about life and you know forgiveness and trying to help him out pardon Me I was able to relate the young women cuz I knew I knew he was feeling and I just knew that I could help young women not feel the way that I felt gr up too yeah while forensic searches continued at the bar where Koko worked John began to piece together his

Movements on the night of the murder there was a number of bits of information that came out of our inquiries so we knew that we could anchor the time of the murder almost to the very minute it was confirmed that there was a period during the night that Ona had left the premises

He had told the night watch man that he was going out to purchase some food and that was at around half one4 to 2 in the morning the night watch man wanted to make sure that he could lock up properly for the night to fulfill his duties he had rang or Cook’s Mobile

Number within 2 minutes of when we believe the murder took place and the purpose that call was where are you and when you come coming back when he didn’t get an answer from Oka the phone rang out importantly maybe 15 20 minutes later he heard the shutters of the doors coming down one

Returned to the bar that time that 20 minutes is the length of time it would take you to make your way back from the murder scene to pack at bar that got me really excited as an investigator we had on Cook’s Mobile phone we had his telephone number and

Here we are somebody has put a call in his phone right at the time of the murder experts now began to analyze Oran koker’s mobile phone and at becket’s bar forensic investigators made their first breakthrough our hypothesis was that he’d been involved in a frenzy knife attack the likely of blood transfer from

The victim to the suspect was high he could have taken that back to the bar to the area where he was living so we were hoping to be able to recover something that we could connect the victim and the bar and thus cooka in the middle fortunately once our search teams

Started conducting their searches they very quickly find a pair of bloodstained jeans behind one of the Bars but did they belong to or unless JN could answer that he would have to release Koka from custody within a matter of hours we made a decision to FastTrack that to make that the number one forensic priority we needed to know who owned the jeanss whil we may suspect they were own

Cookers we did not know we commissioned for an artery to do habitual which is identify the were of the genes through DNA areas such as the waistband the pockets areas that would have common contact with [Applause] skin they worked overnight it roughly takes 24 hours for the DNA cycle to

Run we were against the clock I couldn’t go to the this I simply couldn’t go I wasn’t being selfish I was being thoughtful it wouldn’t be good for his family for me to come in and and break down in front them be very Unfair in the morning of his funeral I went down and I just walked in and put my hand on aon’s shoulder and he looked granny see me he went just grabbed my arm Aon Jr had this lovely Aura and him he just it didn’t Fizz him he he knew his

Capabilities he knew his strengths and he knew where he wanted to go a lot of kids if they want to look up to somebody he’s a person that you can look up to I actually looked up to him as well because he was so humble Experts continued their analysis of data retrieved from Oran kok’s phone John and his team were convinced it would prove their case against him we were going to get information from the phone that placed the phone at the murder scene at the time of the murder and that was

Going to be Priceless the evidential value of that was going to be significant so we thought here we go we’re on track we’re going to get a cide analysis that would place it consistent with the house we got information back and was to my dismay not only did it show that the

Phone was not at the murder scene it almost then went to undermine our case it proved the phone was miles away from the murder scene are we on the right path here have we arrested the wrong person because his phone is showing to be active in a

Different part of Belfast at the time of the murder and our hearts Sank John KN faced another setback as the community’s cooperation turned to hindrance following the identification of the suspect there were a number of attacks on on properties one such attack was on the barber shop where orhan cuka worked 3:00 a.m. and a blue van PS into a barber

Shop we have retaliation taking place in the community attacks taking place on Mo’s Barber Shop the community being you know very helpful to me I’m part of this community and this is my home and I just want to be left alone and get on with my business people had taken this out on

The Turkish Community within any area a tightnit community you’re under pressure regardless of whether it’s loyalist or republican or nationalist or unionist also you have to remember that in areas like this that not necessarily used to how slow the criminal justice system can take people want instant Justice people want instant

Answers I have too much anger inide me and too much rage I’m glad that I have my wife s save me cuz I think I would have went search for what they done then two wrongs to make it right those actions were harming our case we relied on Mo Barber to help our

Case trying to manage Community tensions there’s that balance between allowing due process to take place Gathering the information providing the evidence building the case but also trying to keep the community on side and making them aware of what you’re doing John’s message to the community was

Clear just be with us we are on a path here we are hopeful that we will get to the right place but the racial attacks taking place is a distraction for the investigation as in any area where this happens there’s the the quick reaction from the community who want Justice who

Want uh r distribution and will will lash out detectives were worried that if chaos took hold important evidence would be lost or destroyed in particular the murder weapon forensic teams were continuing to search various locations in and twinbrook one of the things they’re looking for is the knife used to

Stab aan McGee Jr in the early hours of yesterday morning we knew from speaking to members of staff at the bar that knife had gone missing and very very fortunately for us it had only recently been purchased the bar owner was able to tell us where he got it what it looked

Like we purchased the same knife and did a media appeal because we were thinking this knife was maybe discarded in heds or in somebody’s Garden in the path and whilst we had searched for it we hadn’t located it we know that uh he armed himself with a a substantial size of a knife

Uh and brought it to the murder scene we know that Aon died from knife injuries the pathologist uh had reported the scale of the blade that we were looking for and again that blade was consistent with the knife was missing from becket’s Kitchen we were hoping that we would

Recover a murder weapon we would recover IM Gaz blood from the knife and we would ideally recover either fingerprints or DNA evidence as the team continued their search for the murder weapon analysis of CCTV revealed why kok’s phone had not been present at the crime scene the day before when an koha had

Worked and finished work at 5:00 we could see that he left his phone in Moose Barber we had it on CCTV that that phone was left overnight in Moose Barber and that took away my worry that put us back on track Koka always denied the murder and claimed to have barely known

Aan McGee but evidence from his phone now suggested otherwise we were starting to get evidence that would have been very reliable cuz digital format not really able to be disputed a number of apps had been deleted from the phone that morning within minutes minutes before his arrest

Why are you deleting these apps Facebook and so on from your phone well it’s probably because you think there something to hide there deeper examination of that was able to indicate that where cooker said he had occasionally seeing him and mck on Facebook we were able to establish it

Was a little bit more than occasionally Did he know who em and McGee was absolutely he knew who em and McGee was Emon McGee the name was the most searched for item on on CO’s phone we’ve recovered and seen some photographs at off posts was very clear from those photographs that Courtney and Aon were not in a

Relationship we were able to tell how many times he’ visited his Facebook page he had copied and kept pictures on the phone of Aon he had set up a a pseudonym on Facebook and used that to befriend Courtney’s friends and thus using those friendships were able to track what was

Going on with Courtney and aan McGee on a cyber basis so he cyber stoking if we hadn’t got there so quickly uh and or cooker had managed to finish his stay shift at The Barbers and leave with his telephone we may never have got that telephone that is a result of the golden

R actions that is turning around the information that comes in from a community from critical people evidence from iman’s family suggested Koka had gone beyond cyber stalking aan had confided in Francis my big brother what was going on he was already getting death threats to me he didn’t really seem

Worried he was still up and about and loving life and enjoying his enjoying himself detectives were now convinced their hunch about Oran Kuka was correct he had murdered IM and McGee out of jealousy heartbreaking absolutely heartbreak and who wants to hear that their brother’s been stabbed over a woman absolutely Heartbreaking the team delve deeper into kok’s relationship with his ex-wife and discovered disturbing evidence I would put War Koka down as a controller who is jealous who has some issues with the role of females if she was as much seen posting on Facebook with anybody it was an

Immediate assumption that she was having an affair members of Courtney’s family came forward and there were then suggestions of previous threats towards Courtney’s father with a knife you know emotionally it’s a prime case of course of control controlling Courtney’s life my name my name is Dr Susan lighton

I am a psychologist within the School of Psychology at oler University cohor of control is a pattern of negative behavior which is used to dominate intimidate and really try and control a person its main aim is to ensure that a person is no longer independent not all cohor of control

Will have physical elements to it some of it will be psychological and emotional it was very clear that there was a sense of possessiveness within the relationship in terms of who she could see who she could speak to these are really clear indicators of cerve control even after the

Relationship had ended it’s not that you end a relationship and the abuse ends it continues for weeks months years of being attacked by an individual in multiple ways social media was Central to kok’s ongoing efforts to control his ex- partner I know in this particular case

That there was a lot of fake accounts created in order to Monitor and keep up the date with particular movements it’s very common and would fall into that sort of stalking like a monitoring Behavior it was clear orhan was engaged in coercive control but Detective still needed evidence he was at the

Crime scene and responsible for aon’s murder we were confident that we had established a motive we were confident that we had established that Ona had the opportunity to commit the crime we were confident that we had recovered digital evidence from his phone he had downloaded a photograph of aan McGee

I would say that he downloaded that photograph in order to make sure he got the right person we were having discussions with the prosecution service we were presenting a case which was circumstantial in nature but that still fell short until the 11th Hour really what the prosecution service required was

That definitive bit of evidence it is the phone call that you always want to have and when you get that call to say that you have got not only the victim’s Blood on the genes but own cooker DNA on the genes without any complications in the DNA mix pure million million million to

One chance having received the conclusive forensic results on the genes the team finally felt they had enough evidence to present their case to the PPS having had the results come back remember speaking to the prosecution service who gave the final green light and it was the greatest conversation to

Say to Daron charge that man with murder I charged or coka is again non plus made no reply after caution could have been charging him with anything not the taking of a young man’s Life Darren made his arrest just 72 hours after Amma MC’s murder assistance from the community was key to the fast progress of the case but now it seemed that report went only so far we were being fed very helpfully and we’re very grateful for the information that was

Coming but it’s very different between knowing what happened and proving what happened and quite often murder investigations we know what happened but we haven’t been able to secure the evidence that is capable of being presented before court in order to convince a jury of somebody’s guilt so whilst was helpful nobody was

Supplying with the statements to the police investigation the case relied on evidence from the security guard at becket’s bar it helped establish oran’s movements on the night of the murder evidence detectives badly needed on the record that’s one of the people that we felt needed to get a better permission to

Talk to us he was happy to chat to us but not formally not give us written statements without this evidence the detectives entire Cas against Oran was seriously undermined again detectives turned to community leaders for help in the immediate years after Shen F’s endorsement of placing it became

Apparent that the community didn’t make relationships with institutions it made relationships with people and that’s really important to understand they wanted to see neighborhood placing they wanted to engage with the police on the ground and they wanted to develop a relationship and and that’s how you start to develop

The Rapport between the public and the place itself you have to be open and engage with the right people to give the community confidence investigation is going well but if we do not have statements signed by the witnesses this person is not going to be charged we had

Been respectful of the significance of the events that were taking place how we had interacted with the witnesses and the legitimate Desire by everybody to bring Justice to the mcke family when you add that all together people felt confident to come forward following Jon’s intervention with the he came forward we had a

Statement and he was prepared to go to court and give evidence in relation to that the case took 2 years to come to court during that time Oran mained his innocence but sacked several of his legal teams he had last F trial in March 2017 my name is Ashley McDonald and I’m

A court reporter primarily covering Belfast crime Court the name amay everybody in Belfast and Beyond knows that name because of his dad the boxer so I automatically knew that this was going to be a very high-profile case because of who his father was and then really as the story

Unfolded it was just it was just horrendous so on that day the the child was ready to proceed the public Gallery was packed with amon’s friends and family I was certainly ready to report on a two or 3we trial the crime was ready to present its

Case the judge was ready to go there had been two or three weeks set aside for this very important trial to be heard and it was quite strange because we were waiting for the jury to be sworn and then his defense barer asked the judge if he could have a brief

Adjournment sometimes in in a situation like this a defendant plays at the last minute but with this defendant he hadn’t admitted anything in these two years he’d barely spoken about it and in that brief adjournment for 25 30 minutes there was strange atmosphere in the court I kept looking at him and

He just kept his head down so I really didn’t have a good instinct at that point but there was a certain tension whenever the bars came back into the court and the judge came back into the court there was a bit of a tension in

The air and I did think o is he going to be rearranged here he finally finally going to admit to what he did and he did I remember then being took down of the docks and looked at me sorry for your loss and a way walk on

Nodded his head and smelled then as he was walking past Francis he went like that to him you’re next he’s he’s just he’s a fail fail man it may well have been the only the second murder that I dealt with where jealousy was the motive jealousy is a

Very Sinister trit uh and is one that W cooka held in abundance for somebody to be thinking about murder to act on those thoughts pre-plan prep prepare he had time to reflect and consider not to do this could have backed out of it at any point I think in this particular case

The new relationship was certainly a trigger for this individual in terms of their possessiveness their jealous Behavior their sense of dominance over a person had certainly aggravated and provoked what was a very violent Act I think the behavior can be triggered within relationships if you are shall we say behaving yourself within the

Relationship and doing as the abuser would like you to do and behaving in the way they’d like you to behave often when you step out of that or if you try to move away from the relationship it can’t be quite triggering for an abuser and it means that they may escalate their own

Behaviors from things like psychological and emotional abuse to maybe more threatening behavior or even violent physical Behavior Oran Koka must serve a minimum term of 14 years before he can be considered for release they were probably glad that they got the guilty ple because this was

Finally a recognition of what he did you know would you really want to see a man deny murdering your son your brother for for for the three weeks we’re the one with the life sentence not him do you know he’s going to get out in a fe years he’s going to

Go back to truck and live his life again we’re left for this for the rest of our lives but then I didn’t want it to happen because I honestly think my mommy would have died if her broken heart Then although they probably would like to have seen him explain his actions more if he ever would have gone under cross- examination in the dock what they did was get a confession which ultimately led to conviction fact that he’d adjourn proceedings and delayed precedings because of his continual

Sacking of legal te so he did play the system and the 14year minimum sentence was imposed ultimately the judge decides this but the family accepted the sentence but I don’t think they were particularly happy with it and I don’t think that it reflected the severity of the

Crime the judge he couldn’t look at us for some reason the judge because he wanted to give him a heavier sentence but he couldn’t he just had to go by law 2 years he had done before he even got the the sentence and there’re six today and we’re still left crying every single

Day he’s never going to come back do you know that’s him now that’s his life he’s gone forever doesn’t have a life where or hanata gets to commit a prison in a few years go back to Turkey and he can start all over 14 years seems like nothing compared to

The life sentence that Courtney and the McGee family face do I feel it’s enough no I do not if it had been doubled would I feel it’s enough probably not that young man’s not coming back that family will be grieving until they go meet again all they can do is kiss a

Photograph and say happy birthday that’s not 14 years that’s that’s a l sentence John puts the success of his investigation down to one pivotal decision to this day I suppose eight years later uh I would be convinced that had I not done an about turn on that

Hill to speak to the counselor that I would have lost opportunities in this investigation this was the first time I suppose we be direct active engagement that was not tokenism this was I need you you know I really need you on this occasion I don’t

Have the answers I am not going to get this sence but you can sometimes people think that when you live in Northern Ireland you become desensitized to violence because of the conflict and living through the conflict and what that meant to people and families and I just think that and

Something like this happens and the the horrific nature of it and the the brutality involved shook me and it shook other people as well What done my head in the most that was like everyone kept saying to me you got to be strong you got to be strong you have to you have to you have to I made sure I kept it up here for everyone um but now I think now I’m only starting to grave

Really big Time my G mother would be she’s heartbroken she’s a ghost still is to this day she’s just a frame she’s not the Mary the Mother the love and kind person she’s loving C but she’s just not the full person that I used to know Mary McGee will never forget the last

Time she saw her son yeah just that evening and he had left the house me and his sister on you were leaning over the banister talking to him me and him had we think from was the you know that used to be the Barney song

I love you you love me and so me and used to say me you son me momm and Sh upstairs me momm and then he just went on at his class beautiful smell and the shyness of a smell where he eat up his ha you couldn’t help but Le

Him I want to remember him as a champion a champion and that’s that’s him in not a champion we never St stop talking about him ever cormi my oldest sweet boy was ‘s Gods son he talks about him every single day em my middle we boy I constantly

Just tell him who he’s named after and it’s just Stories We things pop in your head every single day and you talk to them and then kid obviously my youngest he’s just to be a so but I will drill it into his head you just keep thinking what if what

If what have we had a graduated what have we had we had the Bo and you know he would have been married we family of his own we House of his own car in the road just think all these different things that it’s never going to happen Me