Two held on girl's 'sectarian' murder

Two people are being questioned about the murder of an 18-year-old Catholic, Ms Bernadette Martin, at the home of her Protestant…

Two people are being questioned about the murder of an 18-year-old Catholic, Ms Bernadette Martin, at the home of her Protestant boyfriend on Tuesday morning. The teenager was asleep at her boyfriend's house in Soldierstown Road, Aghalee, Co Antrim, when a gunman entered through an unlocked back door and shot her four times at close range as she lay in bed.

The RUC yesterday said the killing "may well have been sectarian". The father of the girl's boyfriend, Mr John Green, said he was in no doubt it was sectarian.

Yesterday, the RUC issued a statement: "Two people are being questioned and therefore, for legal reasons, we are limited in what we can say. However, we are working on the premise that the motive may well have been sectarian."

A man arrested on Tuesday is still in RUC custody. Early yesterday, another man was arrested in connection with the murder. Both are understood to be from the Aghalee area.

READ MORE

Aghalee has links with the dissident Loyalist Volunteer Force. However, the outlawed paramilitary group last night denied responsibility for the murder. A spokesman, using a recognised codeword, contacted a local news outlet to deny involvement "in any shape or form".

Ms Martin was shot at least four times in the head at close range at around 3.30 a.m. and died 12 hours later at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.

Ms Martin had been going out with her boyfriend, Mr Gordon Green, for almost a year. They met through working at Avondale Foods, a factory in nearby Lurgan, Co Armagh.

The couple stayed regularly at each other's homes. On Monday night, Mr Green had been visiting Ms Martin at her parents' home in Pinebank, Craigavon, about a mile from Lurgan. His mother collected the couple and brought the pair to Aghalee, a predominantly loyalist village north of Lurgan.

According to Mr John Green, his son was very much in love with Bernadette. The couple had been chatting upstairs when his daughter, Wendy, returned from a night out. He said Ms Green made a snack and the three chatted until the early hours when, one by one, they all fell asleep on the beds, Ms Martin and Mr Gordon Green together on one and Ms Green on another.

Mr Green said: "It's terrible. I can only hope and pray that no other family has to go through this. We will never get over it. My children will not go up the stairs. My son will not stay at home. He is staying with his uncle. He is in pieces."

Mr Rodney McCaffrey, a manager at Avondale Foods, said colleagues of Ms Martin were "walking around in a trance-like state". He said he had visited her parents yesterday to offer the condolences of the workforce.

The Ulster Unionist MP for the area, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, described it as a terrible tragedy.