A TEENAGER was found guilty yesterday of murdering a man in front of his seven-year-old child and pregnant wife.
John Mongan was killed after a gang of three burst into his home in west Belfast in February 2008.
Martin Stokes (16), from the Old Fort in Derry, was convicted by a majority verdict at Belfast Crown Court of the murder, which took place on his 15th birthday.
On Tuesday, the jury unanimously convicted his uncles Christopher Stokes (38) and Edward Stokes (34) of hacking Mr Mongan (30) to death in his Fallswater Street home in the early hours of February 7th last year.
All three have now been convicted of murder. Edward Stokes was also convicted of wounding Julia Mongan with intent, also by a majority verdict of 10 to two.
Yesterday, Mr Justice Treacy told the three there was only one sentence permitted by law, “one of life imprisonment” and told them he would fix the minimum tariff they must serve before even being considered for parole in late January next year.
“We got justice,” Mr Mongan’s wife Julia said afterwards. “It will never bring him back but at least I can rear his children to make him proud.”
Mrs Mongan, heavily pregnant and due to give birth the next day, told the court how she pleaded with them not to attack her husband but that her pleas fell on deaf ears as Christopher Stokes felled him with a blow from an axe.
She described how the other two, also carrying bladed weapons, began to “butcher my husband”, grinning before leaving him for dead, with Edward Stokes hitting her on the head with a sword on his way out.